"Is it inevitable?" he thought to himself as he watched Lukas jog back to the halfway line.
"He plays the role perfectly," assistant coach Buck said to Topmöller. "His vision, ball retention, passing, and shooting are all currently so of the best on this team now that Omar is gone. Even his defensive work is nothing to play with. It’s like he was made for that free role," Buck added.
"Yeah, but he’s still so young. I don’t know about his decision-making ability in big gas yet. And I’m not sure if a ga against Dortmund is one I want to use to find that out."
"Think about it, Coach, how many 16 year olds have you trained that played like this? Most of the the young stars nowadays have a lot of flair, but how many do you think are as calm as he is even when under pressure and always seems to pick the right passes? If he’s not good enough, at half ti you can either switch his position or just take him out of the match.
But if he’s good enough, then we have a superstar on our hands."
"You’re right. Another thing I’m very worried about is his body. He’s only 16. If he gets too much ga ti, it could put a lot of strain on his growing body."
"We can schedule regular dical tests for him. He would also be rested occasionally, too."
Coach Topmöller contemplated his assistant’s words. It was irrefutable that Lukas was one of the best players on the current squad despite his age.
Although the public had only seen him on the pitch for a total of barely half an hour, Topmöller had trained with Lukas for months at this point. He knew more than anyone else how good Lukas was. All that was needed was to trust him enough to build a team around him.
Despite losing their best player, Topmöller felt the team might have grown stronger. The players were all already starting to acknowledge Lukas.
During the practice match, the players on his team instinctively looked for him, knowing that whenever Lukas had the ball, sothing was bound to happen. He didn’t pull off 100% of what he tries, maybe about 70%, but that was already above the team average.
The way he carries the ball with only one intent — move it forward — has started gradually infecting the players around him. Once Lukas is with the ball, Ekitike is already timing his run, Ansgar is looking down the line from the flank to make sure he stayed onside. They know the ball could co to them at any minute even when everyone was thinking that the pass wasn’t on.
The match ended after about 25 minutes with Lukas’s team winning 4 - 2 with Lukas scoring two goals and creating an assist.
FWEEEE
Coach Topmöller blew his whistle to gather the players who were making small talk with each other about the match.
He began speaking after everything had quieted down. "Tomorrow we face Borussia Dortmund. We have to remain at the top of our ga. Even if they seem like they aren’t in the best form right now, they’re still Borussia Dortmund."
The players were now listening to Topmöller with all of their attention. There were no more chatters nor coughs and sneezes that could distract the conversation. They knew this was ti for serious business.
"No club should be underestimated, let alone them. You rember what happened in August when we t them at their ho? They made us open the season with a loss. We can’t let them do the sa thing in front of our own fans."
He slowly turned and looked directly at the faces of all the players standing on the pitch.
"I want you all to rember the flaws we’ve talked about, and tomorrow, I want you to be ready to exploit them all.
The starting and substitute lineup for the ga will be communicated to you later tonight. If you have any questions about it, we can talk tomorrow morning.
I want everyone here and ready for the morning session at 9am. If you miss it, you’re out of the match squad."
* * *
Later that night, Lukas was at the club-given apartnt at the ProfiCamp. He was sitting on the sofa in the living room drinking a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and watching a premier league match. It was half ti and Manchester United were down 1 - 0 to bottom-place Southampton at Old Trafford.
"I could really just put 10k on Diallo scoring a hat trick in the second half and 10x my money," Lukas said as he burst out laughing while watching the half-ti comrcials.
[*Have you finally lost it? Talking to yourself in the middle of the night? That’s a new low even for you.*]
"True, I might honestly just be bat-sh*t cr—."
DING DING DING
His phone chid repeatedly, cutting him off mid sentence. He opened it and saw about 10 unread ssages with his userna being tagged in a bunch of them.
He opened the group chat imdiately to see why he was being tagged so much.
Larsson: "Let’s gooooooo!!! @Lukas"
Götze: "Congrats @Lukas, you deserved it!"
Ansgar: "We’ve gotta start dia training our star-in-the-making."
Ekitike: "If I don’t get a hat trick of assists from you tomorrow, I’m gonna crash out."
Before he could scroll through the wave of congratulations in the chat and get to the original ssage, he was already beaming with a smile as he could already guess why he was being congratulated that much.
His thoughts were confird when he got a ssage from assistant coach Buck:
"Starting XI for tomorrow:
Trapp – Collins, Koch, Theate – Kristensen, Skhiri, Götze, Brown – Ansgar, Ekitike, Brandt.
Subs: Uzun, Larsson, Hojlund, Tuta, Bahoya, Chaibi, Kaua, Dahoud, Chandler, Matanovic."
He stared at the ssage, his body refusing to blink — as if the text might vanish if he did.
DING. He received another ssage, not on the group chat this ti.
He ca back to reality imdiately his brain registered who had just ssaged him — it was coach Topmöller.
"et at my office before tomorrow’s session. There’s sothing about your role in the match I want to talk to you about," Lukas read the ssage out loud to no one in particular. This was a confirmation that the earlier ssage wasn’t a mistake. He was getting his first start.
Better still, at ho against Borussia Dortmund.
A ga which would surely draw the attention of most football fans in the country due to the current position of both clubs in the league table.
He turned off the TV and imdiately called Javi, João, and finally Joanna.
"Hello," her voice which sounded like sweet whispers flowed into Lukas’s ears as she picked the call.
"Hey, Jo. How’re you doing?"
"I’m fine."
"You’re really not gonna forgive for yesterday? I didn’t an to sleep that long."
"I wasn’t mad."
"You say that, but then you act like you don’t want to talk to ."
"How long did it take to pick up your call?"
"Hmm... It was quite fast for sure."
"There you go. Would I do that if I didn’t wanna talk to you?"
"No, but it’s just the way you’ve been responding both to my texts and now on the call. Like you can’t be bothered to speak to ."
"That’s not what’s happening, Luke. Honestly, I was disappointed we couldn’t et yesterday, but I’m not mad... I’m just sulking. Trust , if I was mad at you, Luke, you’d be sure of it."
"Okay, now I’m seriously scared."
"Oh, Lukey, there’s no need to be scared. It’s gonna take a colossal fuck up on your end to really piss off."
"Awwnn... That’s how much you like ?"
"Yesss baby."
"Co give a kiss."
"I asked you to co get it and you slept off."
"You’re not seriously going to hold that over my head forever, Jo, are you?" Lukas said pretending to cry over the issue. "I almost forgot, I called to inform you that I’ll be starting tomorrow’s ga against Dortmund. Will you be able to make it?"
"I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Luke. The tickets will be impossible to get, though."
"I’ll send you all a booth ticket tomorrow. The club offered."
"Ohhh... My Luke is now a star."
"Of course he is."
[*Bruh! Enough already! Geez!*]
"What’s your problem?" Lukas tried to ask TT but mistakenly said it out loud into the phone.
"? I don’t have any problem. Do you have a problem with you calling you ’My Luke’? I can stop it if it annoys you so much."
"No! No! No! I’m sorry, Jo. I wasn’t talking to you. The... The television was misbehaving. I’m always gonna be ’your Luke,’ Jo."
"That’s good. I got scared for a second."
"I didn’t an to scare you, dear. I have to go now, early training tomorrow. Have a good night alright?"
"You too, Luke. Sweet dreams," Joanna said as she quietly blew kisses into the phone before imdiately ending the call.
"What’s your deal, TT?" Lukas asked, slightly irritated with what TT had done in the middle of his conversation.
[*You have a ga tomorrow. You have an early session. You wanna sleep in tomorrow and miss the session so you’ll get dropped from the match squad?*]
"You could have said it in a better way."
[*Or I would have said nothing and watch you ramble on. You have to keep your head in the ga, Luke. Matters of the heart are, of course, important, but football has to be your first love for you to be the greatest, Luke*]
A/N: Thanks for all the gifts and support.
-Writ.
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