Chapter Three: Number Ten for the Bottom Club

Baptiste divided the trial match into thirty minutes and announced one rule: anyone who complained about the pitch could leave. Lin joined the yellow team as a holding midfielder. Within five minutes, he understood why Saint-Denis Workers sat last in the eighth tier. The left back drove a delivery van and passed without looking up. Abou, the center forward, moved boxes in a warehouse all day; he was powerful but always started his run one beat before the cross. Captain Jules was thirty-eight, and every turn resembled a rusted door opening. Worst of all, everyone wanted to prove himself at the trial. Eleven pairs of legs charged forward and no one looked back.