The new Analyst
Clara Hills stepped onto Solvia United’s training ground five minutes early and already regretted it.
The place was loud in that specific football way—boots thudding against turf, someone arguing about a missed pass, a coach shouting instructions that no one fully listened to. The players were scattered across the pitch, warming up like they owned the place.Most of them did.
She slipped her tablet out of her bag and scanned the field, already tagging movement patterns out of habit.
Then she saw him.
Jersey number eleven.Striker. Fast on his feet, careless with the ball, and way too confident for someone who’d just sent a pass into absolutely nowhere.
He tried again, missed it and laughed it off.
Clara frowned and tapped her screen.
Coach Rivera appeared beside her, shaking his head. “That one’s Ryan Cole,Twenty-one. New signing.”
“Figures,” Clara said, eyes still on the pitch.
“He doesn’t love feedback.”
Clara glanced at him. “That’s unfortunate.”
Ryan called for the ball again,shot was wide ,he shrugged, like the goalpost had personally betrayed him.
She typed another note.
Ryan noticed.
He slowed, turned, and walked toward her with the kind of confidence that suggested he had never been told to shut up in his life.
“You keep staring,” he said,“Should I be flattered?”
“No,” Clara replied. “Concerned.”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You’re late on your runs,” she said calmly. “Your spacing is off, and your shot selection is… optimistic.”
A couple of players nearby paused. Someone coughed to hide a laugh.
Ryan scoffed. “And you are?”
“Clara Hills. Performance analyst.”
His eyes flicked to the tablet. “So you just stand there judging people with numbers?”
“I don’t judge,” she said. “I measure.”
He crossed his arms. “Well, your measurements are wrong.”
Clara tapped the screen and turned it toward him,The video froze mid-shot
“They’re really not.”
Coach Rivera didn’t even try to hide his grin.
Ryan stared at the screen, jaw tight. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means you’re arriving too early,” Clara said. “You’re wasting your speed.”
He laughed in dismiss “Right. Because a tablet knows more than instinct.”
Clara met his gaze. “Instinct without discipline is just luck."
Ryan’s smile thinned. He stepped back, shaking his head like she was the problem. “Unbelievable.”
He walked off without another word, boots hitting the turf harder than before.
Clara went back to her notes...
Fast, talented, defensive but She’d seen worse.
Solvia United was going to be interesting.
