Kemal playing for a reserves football team in Germany just to improve on his stamina part three: Considered to play a proper football match for the FC Koln Reserves team.

Cologne, Germany. Friday 22nd December 2023. (Off-Camera)

It had been three months since Kemal had done training for his stamina and Konrad selecting for Kemal to work on his stamina to play soccer was the best thing that could've happened to him, even got to meet new friends. He now frequently has discussions with his team mates, even if he feels bad to reject Christmas dinner with the team because of his religion that prevents him from celebrating Christmas traditions.

Even though he was with Konrad, but that was because Konrad didn't want Kemal to be alone after what's happened this year with his family, especially that Konrad was going to be alone for Christmas anyway since he didn't have his partner with him because it was too soon and Jasmine wanted to spend Christmas with her family. But it was the last day of training for Christmas and at this time, the coaches usually plot which player deserves to play for reserves and who comes in as a substitution.

Of course, Kemal hadn't gotten that far yet because it was still early days, he only joined the team a month ago and there were very slow improvements in Kemal's stamina, even both of the Raab Brothers were surprised in the short time he had been with the team, he had improved his stamina a lot.

Also they saw Kemal was a lot more open to the football players with FC Koln than he was to some of the wrestlers he was training with. Mostly because Kemal had adapted Konrad's approach of wrestling. Not to hang out or make friends with anyone in the gym or the wrestling school, but more than happy to interact with the football players, just like how interactive Kemal saw with Konrad when it came to racing.

As Kemal was doing stamina drills again with Noah Klein who had gotten used to Kemal a lot more, feeling happy he had someone to talk to, likewise with Kemal as well, although they do at times practice with other players when it comes to scoring goals and doing tackles as well. It was more important for the lads to get better at stamina at the FC Koln training ground.

Noah Klein: “You know, I had people who I worked with in the past who moaned and complained about this intensity of stamina training, some even quit after the first day, but I've not heard you bitch and complain about these cases once.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “Because I can't afford to. Besides, I did actually have plans to be a MMA fighter because my stamina was better before the earthquake happened.”

Noah Klein: “I guess because you weren't eating or drinking much that you lost all that ability with the stamina side of things, right?”

Kemal nodded, as much as it was hard for him to answer the question, even it still touched him to this day in memory, how he had to go through a hell of a lot to get where he is today. Of course, it was still hunting him, especially when he held his mother in his arms in an ambulance and she passed away in front of him because of being covered in the earthquake piles of broken buildings for so long.

Noah Klein: “Sorry if I hurt you.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “Na, it's just what hurt the most was my mum died in my arms while we were driving to the hospital along with seeing dead bodies of my entire family. I was left beaten and broken in the street. You don't understand, everyone in the streets in Antakya, Turkey were selling drugs for money, but I wasn't one of those guys, especially how my religion is so against illegal drugs. I was out in the streets begging yes, but for food and drink and not even wanting money from people.”

Of course, the stamina coach heard all of this and it did come to his attention on that's being the reason why. It was because he had been homeless for so many months that everything with MMA he did, made him lose the stamina he had, made him lose the muscle mass he had and everything there is to it and it was such a vital thing that the stamina coach, Bastian Schulz noted it down.

Bastian Schulz: “That does make a lot of sense as if you don't eat or drink enough, you will lose the ability to have great stamina and muscle mass. That does explain everything why you're lacking stamina, especially you were only found a few months ago.”

Kemal nodded while they were doing the drills of jumping over poles like Olympics do with horses, but with humans playing football. Of course Bastian felt a lot more for Kemal after he told the story of the situations that have happened to him, despite Noah and Kemal jumping over ropes and ladder places.

Bastian Schulz: “I'm sorry to hear that. I know what it's like to have a family member die in your arms. My father suddenly collapsed when I hugged him at home and died right there and then.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “At least you got to hug your dad to say goodbye to him, I had to say goodbye to my dad while he was dead. That's been the hardest thing for me was how do I move on with my life with this? How would I get back to doing MMA again.”

Noah Klein: “Wrestling wasn't your dream?”

Kemal Yilmaz: “No, MMA certainly was as there's many Turkish fighters that were doing the sport that attracted me.”

Noah Klein: “So why did you change your mind to be a professional wrestler?”

That was the first time he was ever asked this question because Kemal's dreams were to be an MMA fighter and that was always going to be the goal, heck he almost got a black belt before the MMA gym was broken to pieces which was a story Kemal explained while they were still doing drills, despite how exhausted the men were.

Kemal Yilmaz: “Konrad Raab. He came to my country back in July to rebuild buildings, homes, flats and even historical buildings. Turned out he came because he's a big advocator for climate change. He literally is the only wrestler I've ever known that would immediately fly to the countries or states in US case that has global disasters.”

Noah Klein: “Wow, I had no idea how much Konrad does charity for climate change. Last time I knew of him from my dad, he was doing animal charity.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “He does care for animals with bringing food and drink in natural disasters too, He really was the one who told me, instead of doing MMA, come and do professional wrestling and then he offered me a major deal to me recently. That he's going to retire in December in two years time and for me to take over a tag team as the leader.”

Bastian Schulz: “It's a good thing I'm pushing you hard lad. That's a pretty big responsibility for you and I know you're going to America in April. I like to hope that I will get around on you at least having one game with us. That at least you had the experience of playing reserves football and at least you can work on your stamina more there too.”

Even Noah widened his eyes, although it was a completely different situation for Kemal, due to his going to America in April to continue his wrestling training and to have wrestling matches there as well. He had to question this.

Noah Klein: “I know Kemal has to fly to America, but don't you think it's too soon for him to even consider Kemal doing football matches?”

Bastian Schulz: “You're right, but you understand this is different from other players we've had here. Fact is I want Kemal to experience playing against different players from different clubs, I want Kemal to have friends in football, including with the players and it's a perfect way to build on his stamina.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “I don't feel ready for that to be honest sir. I've only just started. I get it though because you want me to discover the world before I become a professional wrestler, seeing I've only been to Turkey and Germany so far.”

Bastian Schulz: “More to discover Germany. We only do regional matches here, but in a way, there will be global players for those teams we're playing. Overtime, I've seen the improvement you've been making so far and you have certainly gotten a lot faster, but you're still considered a bit too slow for football.”

That only wanted Kemal to push on, remembering that he would exhaust himself out just to push himself to the limits, knowing the wrestling factor was his motivation of getting there and Noah knew what his motivation was on him playing for the main FC Koln team someday which was why it was going to take longer for Noah, although he had played many reserves matches.

Bastian Schulz: “While you're nearly ready to be put into the main FC Koln team, Noah. We've seen so much growth in the last two years you've been with us. You will be placed in cup matches apart from the reserves championship cup. You're passion to improve has been remarkable. There were times you wanted to give up, but you sailed through, just like Kemal.”

Noah Klein: “Because all I ever wanted to be as a kid was to play football. I always selected football to be played at Psychical Education because I was pretty good at it, just when I came here, I noticed that actually, I wasn't so good after all.”

Bastian Schulz: “Yeah, that was true, but the reason we kept Noah was because of his passion, his dedication to the team. He's been a fan of us since he was three years old. So usually if the players are bad at stamina, we'll release them, but Noah was so committed, even seeing him doing stamina overtime that we kept him on.”

In a way, Noah was also a very special case as well as Kemal which didn't make Kemal feel that much left out, almost alike paths, only that if Kemal didn't have the earthquakes in Turkey, he wouldn't be in this position now and if Noah hadn't been putting in extra gym work, he wouldn't have been in this position either. They still jumped the ropes and even ran with the ball to the goal and it was back and forth between the pair of them.

Kemal Yilmaz: “That's amazing. I'm really glad you guys kept Noah on.”

Noah Klein: “Likewise as there wasn't any other sports I wanted to do, apart from football because my dad played and I followed under his wings pretty much. I couldn't be a wrestler if my life depended on it. I'm way too skinny for that.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “Like I'm not skinny right now. I've had to lift a lot of weights as a way to do bodybuilding to get back to where I was. I'm slowly getting there, but not very much. I also bet the pair of you have partners.”

Noah Klein: “My wife loves me to death, especially me committing to the game. Bastian has a wife and three kids. I'm guessing you don't.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “Na, my family were pretty strict because of being Muslim on relationships. I do need a partner to build my own family, that's for sure, but I most likely wait until I go to America to find one. Since I want to be married and have kids, but it's not as easy as that.”

Which was true as it wasn't like a traditional relationship where you can jump straight into kissing and having sexual intercourse immediately, you have to get married to do that, but you also need to know that you generally love someone. That's something that Noah and Bastian had to understand and how different he would be compared to other people.

Noah Klein: “Oh I'm sure it's not. Anyway, it's been nice to chat, but we've got to go our separate ways. I'll be honoured to have you play for the reserves team when I play. I'm a regular player as you saw in one of the matches. Sorry for being harsh on you.”

Kemal Yilmaz: “Believe me that I would've questioned if you got into the wrestling business after only a few months of training to have your first match as well. So I can't say anything different to that. Anyway, I see you around and have a nice Christmas and same to you Bastian.”

Both of them almost said the same back, until they realised that Kemal isn't celebrating Christmas. However, he is going to be with Konrad this Christmas because of not wanting him to be on his own. It was far too soon for Konrad to spend Christmas with Jasmine's family, especially they didn't seem to like Konrad very much which of course was obvious because of the pretty big age gap.

Kemal did have plans to do some stamina training on Christmas Day, since he knew Konrad would celebrate it with his family, and that he wouldn't be alone, which would make things slightly better, even though he doesn't celebrate Christmas. It was an experience that he'll get, although him being  considered being in the reserves team as somewhat of a gift for him as he was mainly there to work on stamina. 

Bastian was right, Kemal did need to start talking to other people more, including the players to build a social group since Kemal didn't have any friends or friends he knew that were alive that is, but he knows sooner than later, if he had friends that were alive, they would discover him, whelther it'll be in Germany or even United States. Especially he needs them if he plans to get married which he certainly wants to do to build his own family. He and Noah go to the changing room, along with the other players and then all of them went their own ways with Kemal going back to the wrestling school by himself with Raab brothers waiting on him.