CHAPTER 1: THE END
Munich, Germany
April 28th, 2024
17:43 PM
The rain hammered against the windshield like bullets, each drop a small explosion of water and sound. Klaus Zimmermann sat motionless in the driver's seat of his BMW, hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white. The engine was off. The parking lot outside the TSV München-Ost stadium was nearly empty now, just a few scattered vehicles belonging to the cleaning staff.
His team had lost 4-0. At home. Against the second-worst team in the 2. Bundesliga.
That made it seven losses in the last nine matches. The board had called him into the office immediately after the final whistle. The conversation lasted exactly four minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Klaus had counted every one of them.
"We're making a change, Klaus. Effective immediately."
"We appreciate everything you've done, but the results speak for themselves."
"We'll honor the remainder of your contract, of course."
"Security will escort you to collect your belongings."
Forty-one years old. Two failed managerial stints in three years. No prospects. No future.
Klaus closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the headrest. The sound of the rain was almost soothing, a white noise that drowned out the screaming in his mind.
How had it come to this?
He'd been so sure of himself three years ago. So confident. The tactical analysis, the training methods, the man-management skills—he'd studied it all. Spent years as an assistant coach, learning from the best. When he finally got his first head coach position with a Regionalliga club in 2021, he thought he was ready.
He wasn't.
The team imploded. Players revolted. The board lost faith. Fifteen months later, he was fired.
TSV München-Ost had been his redemption arc. A 2. Bundesliga club with ambitions of promotion. They'd hired him based on his tactical knowledge, his passion, his promise to implement a modern, possession-based system.
Instead, he'd led them to the brink of relegation.
I'm a failure, Klaus thought, the words sharp and cold in his mind. A complete and utter failure.
His phone buzzed. He didn't look at it. It would be another journalist asking for a comment, or perhaps his ex-wife reminding him about next month's alimony payment, or maybe one of the players offering hollow condolences.
He didn't want to hear any of it.
Klaus opened his eyes and stared through the rain-blurred windshield at the stadium. From this angle, he could just make out the corner of the pitch through the main entrance. That green rectangle had been his entire world for the past eighteen months. Every blade of grass, every white line, every frustrated run and misplaced pass.
All of it, gone now.
He reached for the ignition, his hand trembling slightly. Time to go home. Time to figure out what the hell a forty-one-year-old failed football manager does with the rest of his life.
The engine roared to life. Klaus shifted into reverse, checked his mirrors out of habit, and began backing out of the parking space.
He never saw the delivery truck.
The driver, running late and frustrated, had taken the corner too fast. His visibility was near zero in the downpour. He didn't brake until it was far too late.
The impact came from Klaus's left side—a thunderous collision of metal and glass. The BMW spun violently, Klaus's head snapping to the side with brutal force. He felt something crack in his neck. The world became a kaleidoscope of spinning lights and shadows.
No, he thought distantly. Not like this. Not now.
The car came to rest on its side. Klaus hung suspended in his seatbelt, blood running down his face from a deep gash above his left eye. He couldn't feel his legs. Couldn't feel much of anything below his chest.
Through the shattered window, he could see the delivery truck driver stumbling out of his vehicle, phone already pressed to his ear. The man was screaming something. Calling for help, probably.
Too late for that.
Klaus's vision was narrowing, darkness creeping in from the edges like a closing iris. His breathing came in short, wet gasps. He tasted copper.
This is it, he realized with strange clarity. This is how I die. Alone in a parking lot, a failure, with nothing to show for forty-one years of life.
Regrets flooded through him. Not spending more time with his daughter before the divorce. Not taking that assistant position at Borussia Dortmund when he'd had the chance. Not being braver, bolder, better.
Not knowing what it felt like to truly succeed.
The rain continued to fall, each drop a tiny drumbeat marking the seconds of his life slipping away. The delivery driver's voice became distant, then disappeared entirely. The pain faded. The cold crept in.
If I had another chance, Klaus thought as the darkness consumed him, I would do it all differently. I would be fearless. I would trust my instincts. I would build something truly great, no matter how long it took.
If only...
If only...
The last thing Klaus Zimmermann saw was the corner of that green pitch, barely visible through the rain and the gathering dark.
Then nothing.
Absolute, complete, eternal nothing.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING]
[SEARCHING FOR SUITABLE HOST...]
[HOST LOCATED]
[KLAUS ZIMMERMANN - AGE 41 - DECEASED]
[REGRET LEVEL: MAXIMUM]
[UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL: MAXIMUM]
[PASSION FOR FOOTBALL: MAXIMUM]
[COMPATIBILITY: 100%]
[INITIATING REBIRTH PROTOCOL...]
[TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT: -10 YEARS]
[MEMORIES: RETAINED]
[KNOWLEDGE: RETAINED]
[MANAGER SYSTEM: ACTIVATED]
[WELCOME BACK, KLAUS ZIMMERMANN]
[YOUR SECOND CHANCE BEGINS NOW]
END OF CHAPTER 1
Author's Note: Klaus's journey ends here... and begins again. In the next chapter, he awakens to find himself ten years in the past, with a mysterious system and an impossible dream: to build a football empire from nothing.