The Coaching System-Chapter 245: Inside Bradford: "Who is Richter?"

Date: Monday, 5 January 2026

Location: Bradford City Media Room – Club Interview Segment

The studio lights weren't blinding—just warm enough to blur the edges of the world into something softer, something quieter. Claret and amber banners stretched along the back wall like a stitched memory of the club's heart, framing the small, intimate setup: two chairs, one small table between them, and the hum of cameras somewhere just out of frame.

Jake stood beyond the glass panel off to the side, arms crossed loosely as he watched. It wasn't his interview, but tonight, everything mattered. Every small beat of belonging they stitched into the club now would echo into something bigger later.

Tobias Richter sat on the far chair, neat posture, hands clasped lightly in his lap. His jaw looked tight at first—still carrying the stiffness of someone not yet used to being looked at, not like this. Microphone clipped discreetly to his polo shirt, badge over the heart.

Across from him, the club's in-house host leaned forward with an easy smile, notes forgotten on the small table. The kind of smile designed not to dig, but to open.

The soft thud of the host's foot tapping under the table was the only other sound besides the light murmur of background equipment.

"Welcome, Tobias," the host said, voice easy, almost confidential. "Or should I say… 'The Silent Striker.'"

A hint of laughter under the words. Not mockery. Just affection. Recognition of the way Bradford's fans had already started sketching his story into their songs.

Tobias gave the faintest tug of a smile but didn't rush to answer.

The host shifted slightly, easing into the first question.

"Tell us," he said, voice warm. "Where did this journey really start?"

For a moment, Richter's gaze dropped—not avoiding, not faltering. Just... gathering.

Then he lifted his head, and when he spoke, the words were unvarnished. Real.

"It didn't start on a pitch," he said, voice low but steady.

"It started in a house full of books. Stacks of them. Anatomy. Biology. Law."

He paused, breath misting faintly in the slightly over-warm studio.

"My father's a surgeon. My mother..." A small, almost imperceptible twitch at the corner of his mouth. "Genetics professor."

He let the silence sit. Let the truth hang there without needing to be dressed up.

"There wasn't much room for dreams outside of medicine."

The host stayed silent, nodding once, letting Richter hold the weight himself.

Beyond the glass, Jake watched, feeling the invisible thread tighten. Sometimes the real battles weren't fought with boots and whistles. Sometimes they were fought alone, in quiet rooms, against the ghosts of expectation.

The conversation shifted gently.

"And the turning point?" the host asked, voice lowered like a man stepping carefully into a deeper current.

Tobias leaned forward slightly, fingertips brushing lightly over the table's edge.

"I went to a youth summer camp when I was fourteen," he said, eyes brightening slightly at the memory. "My parents thought it was academic enrichment."

He huffed a soft breath—half amusement, half ache.

"There was a small football tournament... unofficial, really. Just boys kicking a ball until sunset. No pressure. No scouts. No one watching."

He smiled then—small, rare, but real.

"That was the first time I felt alive."

The host stayed quiet, giving the story room to breathe.

Tobias's hands opened slightly, almost unconsciously, palms up.

"I hid it at first," he said. "Secret trainings. Late runs. Excuses about schoolwork."

His voice didn't crack, but something behind it wavered—like glass catching the light at a strange angle.

"By sixteen..." He paused. Let it land. "I knew."

A breath, heavier this time.

"I packed a single bag. Left a letter. Took a train."

No dramatics. No swelling music behind the words. Just a simple fracture line drawn clean through a life.

"I joined a small Bundesliga academy," he said. "And broke ties with my family for... almost four years."

There was no bitterness in his voice. Just a scar you could hear if you listened close enough.

Jake leaned back against the wall, arms crossing tighter. Not from judgment. From understanding.

Not every journey to a football pitch was a straight road.

The host shifted carefully, steering them toward the present, reading the invisible map in Richter's posture, his eyes. A good interviewer knew when to push and when to leave the silence alone.

"And now?" he asked, voice lowered like a man stepping lightly into sacred ground. His hand gestured lightly to the walls around them, the soft banners of claret and amber, the quiet weight of Valley Parade hanging in the very air. "Here at Bradford?"

Richter's gaze dropped again, but this time it wasn't uncertainty pulling him down. His fingers brushed the Bradford crest stitched neatly onto his polo shirt—just a touch, feather-light, almost instinctive. Like a man checking his own heartbeat.

Jake, watching from the glass window just out of shot, felt something hitch in his chest without warning.

The boy wasn't acting. Wasn't rehearsing.

This was real.

"Here..." Richter started, voice almost a whisper, "I'm not Tobias the Doctor's Son."

The sentence didn't fall flat. It didn't reach for drama. It just... was. A simple truth, stripped clean of apology.

He tapped the badge once—gentle, reverent.

"I'm just Tobias," he said, and there was a flicker of something fierce beneath the softness. A steel spine inside the boy who had once run away from everything he'd ever been told to be.

"Just a striker."

He smiled then.

Not the practiced smiles Jake had seen players pull for cameras, teeth white, eyes dead.

No.

This was something smaller. Something fought for. Something born out of long nights in empty hostels, cheap boots, missed birthdays, quiet regret tucked under pillows in academy rooms.

It wasn't the kind of smile you put on posters.

It was the kind you built a life around.

"No expectations to wear a white coat," Richter added, the words slipping from him almost unnoticed.

"Just a badge over my heart..." He exhaled quietly, the sound barely picked up by the mic. "And a ball at my feet."

The room seemed to contract for a moment, like the very air leaned in to listen.

Jake pressed his knuckles lightly against the window, not hard enough to make a sound.

It mattered.

Hearing it said aloud. Hearing a boy name himself, not with apologies, not with half-measures.

For Richter.

For every kid in their academy who thought the world had already chosen who they had to be.

For Jake himself—who had once needed someone to tell him it was okay to choose a different road.

The host smiled—a small, careful thing, like sliding a final piece into place without disturbing the fragile balance of the moment.

He tapped the table lightly with two fingers, the sound soft, respectful. Like sealing a truth.

"From runaway dreamer..." the host said, voice warm and low, "...to Valley Parade's rising son."

No fanfare. No anthems.

Just a title that fit like an old, beloved jacket.

The camera light above them blinked once, indicating the final frame was near.

Off-camera, just past the frame's edge, Walsh and Rin Itoshi stood shoulder to shoulder, grinning like two kids eavesdropping on their favorite fairy tale.

Walsh elbowed Rin gently, a silent nudge, the kind brothers traded when words weren't needed.

Rin smothered a laugh, shoulders shaking once.

Tobias caught it.

Saw them.

And something in him—something wired tight for years—gave way.

He laughed.

Not a tight chuckle. Not the restrained half-laugh people learned to give when they weren't sure if they were allowed to be happy.

A real laugh.

Short. Raw. Boyish.

Like a door slamming open inside him, letting fresh air flood into a room sealed too long.

Jake smiled without meaning to, a small flicker behind his otherwise composed face. The kind of smile you gave when you saw healing happen in real time.

The host didn't rush to fill the space. Didn't slap a final question onto it. He just let the moment breathe.

Golden.

Fragile.

Real.

The camera faded slowly to black, the last image freezing on Tobias Richter—still smiling, still lighter, still touching the badge stitched over his heart like it had always belonged there.

As the screen darkened, the Bradford City logo bloomed into view, soft against the background hum of pride and hope.

Somewhere beyond the walls of the studio, beyond the cracked streets and battered terraces of the city, something new took root.

Not headlines.

Not hype.

Something harder to name. frёeωebɳovel.com

Hope.

Real.

Quiet.

Fierce.

Built not on promises or purchases, but one small, stubborn truth at a time.

Brick by brick.

Smile by smile.

Dream by dream.