Interns at FC Barcelona

Chapter 29: They came to see me?

“YES! WOOHOO!” Demi screamed.

“Please, remember to stay professional,” he said looking at Demi as I noticed Elena closing Demi’s mouth.

“I’m sorry sir,” Demi said immediately regretting what she had done.

“Now as you all know, you all have your own mentor who will have different requirements for each of you. What I can say is for now we have gotten desks and laptops for you to use while you are working for the club. At this point I do not think you will be working directly with the players but that could possibly change depending on your progress and mentor. I hope you will all be successful here. For now Matt, I would like you to come to my office to discuss what you will be busy with this week. The others will be here with all of you soon,” Arbelado said looking at us.

“Well Matthew, let us go,” Arbelado said while leading the way as Matt followed. Matt quickly turned around and gave us all thumbs up. Typical Matt.

“Ola Nate,” we all heard a friendly voice say. It was Abella who had come for Nate.

“Ola Mrs. Madera,” Nate said.

“Well come with me and I will show you what you will be doing,” she said, “Nice seeing you all.”

“See you later,” Nate said to all of us as he left. Before I knew it Elena and Demi’s mentors had come and I was left waiting for mine.

“Miss Avery?” I heard a voice say.

“Yes, Ola Mr. Rivero,” I said in a friendly voice.

“Ola, I must say I was surprised by your assignment. It impressed me,” he said. Yay! Well after the way we all slaved on our assignments at least it was worth it.

“Thank you sir,” I said happily. Hopefully he would be a bit nicer than when we first met.

“Now let me explain what I want you to do while working for the club. As you know Barcelona plays many matches in different leagues. There are always different opponents and there are certain traits that occur whether at home or away. I would like you to compile stats for every match two days in advance. You may hand it in at the end of the day but it must be in time. For example, we play on Saturday this week so I would like the work done by Thursday morning if possible but you have until Thursday afternoon to complete it. At times where Barca play up to three matches a week, you will have to handle your time carefully. Other than that as long as that is complete you do not have to be at the office unless I give you extra work. Within the stats I want you to summarize the main points such as when we tend to score more often, the type of formation we tend to use that either succeeds or fails. Things like that. I will provide you with some of the records we might have but all other research you will have to do on your own. You must attend all the matches to see what worked, what didn’t work and ways to improve or what the club is doing that is helping us to be successful. Do you understand?” he asked me after I was taking some time to absorb all the information. I nodded my head and was excited to get to work. Attending all the matches was perfectly fine with me.

“Do you have any questions?” he asked professionally.

“Do I not get to work with the players?” I said before I could stop myself. Luckily I kept my tone professional and avoided sounding surprised.

“For now, no, but perhaps in the future weeks if I think of something then I will let you know,” he said, “Well I guess I better leave you to get started. We are playing Real Sociedad away and unfortunately for you, 3 days after we start UEFA group stages against AC Milan at home. There will be a lot of preparation needed for that game so you better get started,” he said. I nodded knowing the importance of the match against AC Milan.

“If you have any questions email me and I will let you know if I am happy with your work or how I would like you to improve it,” he said, “Well have a good day and good luck.”

 

“You too,” I said nicely as he walked off. I walked into the office and switched on my new laptop, this was going to be quite a bit of work but at least it was something I enjoyed. I wondered what the others were being told to do and how they were getting along. I decided to try and call them. I first called Elena and noticed it was just ringing. They must still be speaking to their mentors. I messaged all of them to let me know what their mentors said. After about half an hour the door opened and Matt walked in.

“Hey!” I said.

“Hey! What did I tell you? I told you we’d get the internships! I was right!” he said happily and I could not help but smile along with him.

“Fine, you were right ok?” I said to him fuelling his attitude.

“Of course I was,” he said smugly.

We spoke about what our mentors had told us to do.

“So basically the recent transfers and any of the Barca B players that come up, I have to help contract things for that, you know, to avoid any problems that could occur but they approve if what I do is right. Plus I get to confirm Sanchez’s contract! How cool!?” he said clearly happy with his job, “But yours sounds cool too.”

Just then the door opened again and we saw Nate walk in.

“We made it!” I said as I went up to hug him

“We did!” he said back to me.

“Ok why don’t you tell me that? Or hug me?” Matt asked me.

“Fine I’ll hug you,” I said going over to hug Matt, “Not my fault no other girl wants to hug you,” I said softly as Nate laughed a bit.

“I heard that!” Matt said. Once again we all saw the door open as Demi and Elena walked in.

“I mean was it really that unrealistic to think I’d get to give them all a check up?” Elena said as she walked in but I could see she was happy like the rest of us.

“You mean check out,” Demi said to her, “Well I have to do some research before I meet with my mentor again. Matt apparently we might have to work together, you’ll have to help with the advertising contracts,” Demi said.

“I know, we’ll go together later,” Matt said to her.

“Me too,” Nate said.

“Contract them to be shirtless all the time,” Elena said.

“I think it would look odd if I wrote that,” Matt said to Elena as we all laughed a bit.

 “Wait, am I the only one who doesn’t have to meet anyone later?” I asked wondering.

“Apparently so,” Elena said.

“Well we can all go have lunch together right?” I asked.

“I’m sure, I’ll go ask Ricardo where the players are today,” Nate said.

“Yeah we do not need people spilling coffee on us again,” Elena said jokingly. We all sat at our desks and got to work. Nate asked Ricardo and he informed us that the players were at the training ground today. We asked Ricardo to join us for lunch as well. Soon enough it was afternoon and we all needed some food to keep us going. We all walked out of the building to the cafeteria. When we got there, there were very few people.

“Is it really unrealistic of me to believe that we would see certain people here?” Elena said quietly to me.

“No, cause honestly I was thinking the same thing,” I said back to her truthfully.

“Wow Jade, seems like someone is becoming at optimist,” she said softly to me with a wink.

We all ate and had our much needed coffee but before I knew it I was back in the office working again. Everyone had left to go meet with their mentors. Trust my mentor to only see me when necessary.  I should have brought my ear phones! Oh well at least I know for tomorrow. I was annoyed I forgot my earphones, that way I could have at least listened to music. I looked at the time, it was 5:30 already. I decided I would stay till 7. I barely got any sleep last night and it was finally catching up with me. Just then I heard a knock at the door. I assumed it would one of the others, but I was very wrong.