The following day, the time showed 11:45 AM when Zachary set foot in Pullman Kinshasa Grand Hotel's restaurant for his only scheduled meeting before he returned to Europe.
He settled down at a table by the window in the far corner and started taking in the sights around him. The next moment, his eyes lit up as he was really impressed by the aesthetics around him.
The decorations around the place were elegant and extravagant, especially with the eye-catching paintings and expensive antiques adorning the walls. The luxurious dining table sets, neatly arranged in the restaurant, were like a work of art atop the beautiful woolen carpets covering a sizeable fraction of the tiled floor. And as a final touch to the entire set-up, soft classic music, at just the right volume, played in the background, soothing the ears of the customers savoring their meals.
"Good morning, sir," a uniformed waiter said after approaching his table.
"Good morning," Zachary replied, nodding at the waiter.
"Welcome to the Pullman Kinshasa Grand Hotel's restaurant," the waiter said. "We have a variety of dishes (both local and foreign) available for your enjoyment here in our restaurant. Please look at the menu and see if any of our dishes catches your eye." He placed three menu booklets of considerable volume on the table in front of Zachary.
"Thank you," Zachary said, picking up one of the menu booklets. "But I won't order any food for now as I'm still waiting for someone. For the moment, give me lemon juice and water. Then, when the person I'm waiting for arrives, I'll order the dishes."
The waiter nodded with a smile. "That's very okay. You can feel at home while waiting for your friend to arrive. Let me get you your water and lemon juice for the moment. It'll only take five minutes."
"Thank you for your service," Zachary said, smiling.
"It's my pleasure," the waiter said with a slight bow. He then stepped away from the table to prepare the orders.
Zachary ignored everything around him and immediately turned his focus to his phone. He started browsing the trending sports news around Europe to pass the time.
The news of Germany winning the 2014 World Cup was no longer a hot topic. Instead, it was the speculations and confirmations of transfer activity between the various top clubs in Europe that were making waves on the internet. So, when Zachary opened his phone browser, he immediately chanced upon the very same subject.
Barcelona had just completed the highest profile transfer of the summer so far. After months of negotiations with Liverpool, they had finally managed to land Luis Suárez for a whopping fee of 94 million Euros. Details on the internet even hinted at Barcelona promising to pay the phenomenal striker a staggering salary of 12.5 million Euros per year to land his signature. As far as most credible sports journalists were concerned, Luis Suarez was sure to become the most expensive signing of the summer.
"The events are similar to the ones of my previous life," Zachary thought. "It seems there weren't many changes caused by my going back in time."
Zachary smiled as he scrolled down the page to take in more headlines. There were rumors of James Rodríguez, the Colombian playmaker, agreeing on personal terms with Real Madrid. Reports claimed that his move was almost imminent, and he would leave AS Monaco within a few weeks.
Then, there were rumors of Angel Di María agreeing to join Manchester United and other speculations about Mario Balotelli's agent arriving in England to negotiate his move to Liverpool. There was also confirmation of Alexis Sanchez and Diego Costa completing their moves to Arsenal and Chelsea, respectively.
After the World Cup final, transfer activity between top clubs was in full bloom. So, many more transfer rumors were floating around on the internet as sports journalists and netizens speculated about the subsequent high-profile signings. But what finally caught Zachary's attention the most were speculations about himself.
"Chelsea, Tottenham, and Juventus are still in the lead to sign Rosenborg's wonder kid - Zachary Bemba," a headline read. "Forget Luis Suárez joining Barcelona for a record summer transfer fee. The saga that has been tickling at our nerves is the one concerning Zachary Bemba. I believe I speak for all football lovers in Europe when I say that we are very eager to know Zachary Bemba's next club when he finally leaves Rosenborg."
"Even before the World Cup, various reports had already linked the young playmaker to top European clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, PSG, Tottenham, and Juventus," the article read on. "But due to unexpected circumstances that saw the young playmaker lose a close relative, negotiations concerning his move out of Rosenborg came to a standstill. But worry not, football lovers! There's finally a breakthrough."
"A reliable source has recently revealed that his agent is already meeting parties from some interested clubs to arrange the final details of Zachary's transfer. And the same reliable source has also disclosed that the leading clubs in the race to acquire Zachary's signature this summer are Chelsea, Juventus, and Tottenham. All three clubs have already tabled 70-plus million Euro offers to land the player from Rosenborg. As long as one of the three clubs agrees on personal terms with Zachary, we'll finally get to know his next club..."
Zachary stopped reading the article and creased his brows as the waiter brought his bottled water and juice over. He thanked and sent him away before leaning forward and taking a sip of his lemon juice. At the same time, his mind was wandering. He was even a bit confused.
Aside from Tottenham and Juventus, he'd instructed Emily to disregard all the offers from the other clubs. But now, on reading the news on the internet, there were rumors strongly linking him to Chelsea Football Club. An even more baffling fact was that all those speculations were on reliable websites like The Daily Mirror and Sky Sports News. They all seemed sure that he was considering a move to Chelsea.
"What's happening?" Zachary wondered while continuing to sip his juice. "Is it José Mourinho playing mind games, or is this a move by Emily to strengthen our position during negotiations on personal terms? I should call Emily and get to the bottom of this, especially since I don't want to end up playing for Chelsea."
He immediately started searching for Emily's number in his phone book. He was ready to make a call to his agent to inquire about the exact details concerning his transfer out of Rosenborg. But suddenly, a familiar voice interrupted him, causing him to halt his actions.
