Chapter Seventeen London, and Manchester, the United Kingdom and Le Vesinet near Paris
Astonishment and disbelief greeted Angel Sirius’s retirement announcement at the Press conference in the Barbican Hall. Nearly two thousand journalists from many countries filled the vast auditorium because they had been promised sensational developments. This revelation took them all by surprise. Why would a twenty-seven-year-old champion at the peak of his profession, in line for his third successive Golden Ball, throw his career away? The reaction and hubbub were explosive.
“Do you have a career-threatening injury?”
“Is it a serious disease?”
“Has your recent marriage impacted this decision?”
The bemused journalists’ questions gushed like a river in full spate. At last, Sirius called for silence
