The Loanee - Page 1

This moment should have been so different.

It was supposed to be the stuff of dreams; something he'd been building up to all his life.

It should have been his moment.

And yet, as he waited for the referee's whistle, the prospect of what he was about to do filled him with dread. No, he wasn't about to rob a bank or commit one of the seven deadly sins; a football hitting the back of a net wouldn't have any ramifications within world politics. It would, however, have consequences for a community he had grown to love. It would send shockwaves through the footballing world. Most of all, there would be serious implications for his own identity – defining the very person he had become and going against so much he had yearned for all his life. Indeed, the moment that should have been the peak of his professional career was fast turning into a nightmare.

It was supposed to be so, so different.

He paused for a second to think, affording himself the luxury of a wry and all-too-brief smile.

“How did it all come to this?” he wondered. “How could scoring a penalty to win the league title make me so miserable? Millions – no, billions – would kill to get this chance.”

Well, that was a long story...