Page 66 of Off the Pitch

“What’s going on?” Liam asked, from beside me.

“Leg’s broken,” said one of the medics, whose name I couldn’t remember.

“Broken?” Micah added, a stunned expression on his face.

“Might be a double break, but we need to get it scanned before we can confirm it,” she replied before following the stretcher carrying Hugo off the pitch.

Everything was in disarray, but somehow, I had to focus because I had to take a penalty. Hugo had been brought down inside the box, so the shot on goal was ours.

I took the ball from the referee as he marked the spot and gave me the instructions.

The stadium, which had been filled with howling cries, was silenced.

I placed the ball down and stepped back, looking at the goalkeeper as I always did. Taking in their features, their position, reading them like an open book. David had once told me it was easy to read a goalkeeper.

He was the one who’d taught me to score penalties in a tiny park in East London with one single, battered set of goalposts.

It was the place I went to every time I stepped up to the spot.

Every goalkeeper became him because I could always read him. Because of him, I never missed.

Even throughout those years apart, I had always seen him because I’d never stopped loving him. Never stopped needing him. And now he was gone, and I’d been the one who’d sent him away.

My head was spinning, my body screaming at me to focus, but all I could see was David at fifteen in his old England shirt and battered goalie gloves, staring at me with eyes that could read every emotion on my face before I knew what I was feeling.

All I could hear was his voice in my head, firm and soft as he challenged me:“C’mon, Christian. Focus.”

My foot connected with the ball… and sent it soaring miles over the top of the goal.

The crowd erupted in jeers as my knees hit the pitch.

I had missed. For the first time in a long time, I’d missed a penalty. The easiest chance we’d had to score and get back in the game. And I’d missed.

Our chance was gone.

And it was all my fault.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

REGICIDE!

King Miss Means Greenwich Out of Champions League

Daily Mail

THE KING IS DEAD

King Fails in Penalty Bid to knock Dortmund Out

The Mirror

KING & A MISS

King’s Penalty Miss Costs Greenwich Place in Quarters

The Sun

KING MISSES CRUCIAL PENALTY AS DORTMUND DENY GREENWICH

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