Early the next morning, at 8:30a.m., the staff were already getting the items needed for the morning session ready.
It was going to be a short session, and then about an hour of tactical discussions where Toppmöller would make any final tweaks to the strategy needed to face Dortmund.
There was still half an hour before the training session, but Lukas was already in front of Dino Toppmöller’s office.
"Co in," Toppmöller said in response to a knock on his door.
Dino Toppmöller’s office was clean, quiet, and organized with a clear purpose — football. The walls were mostly white, with one side taken up by a large magnetic board filled with tactics. Colored magnets showed different formations, and there were notes written in marker: player initials, arrows, and set-piece instructions. A printed schedule of training sessions and upcoming fixtures hung nearby, pinned next to a couple of personal items, like a small frad photo of his father, Klaus Toppmöller, on the sidelines of a pitch during his ti as the Bayer Leverkusen head coach.
There were a few shelves, mostly filled with coaching books and football biographies, and a couple of match balls from morable gas. One small frad drawing — clearly done by a child — stood out from the rest. It read: "Papa’s team always wins," in colorful letters.
The office wasn’t flashy or overly decorated. It was practical, focused, and personal in a quiet way, much like Topmöller himself.
After he exchanged greetings with the coach, he stood in front of the coach’s desk, arms crossed, ready for his words.
"You saw the ssage sent last night, right? You’ll be starting today’s match. What do you think about that?"
"I won’t let you down, Coach," Lukas responded, his voice filled with conviction.
"Good. I called you to talk to you about your expected role tonight. Walk with ," Topmöller said as he stood up from his desk and walked out of the office. Lukas followed him closely.
"I want you to play in a free role tonight. You’re able to pick passes from almost anywhere on the pitch, and you’re calm with the ball. You rarely get dispossessed even in training. These are all qualities I want you to put on display tonight."
Toppmöller explained his vision to Lukas. He would start as an attacking midfielder just beside Götze, but he could go forward to make a front three with Ansgar and Ekitike. He could also drop back to assist in defense during transitions.
"It ans you will be covering a lot of distance. I have no doubt about your speed, endurance, or stamina because I see it in training every day. But I know it can be difficult in a ga like this. It is your first start and it is a big ga."
"I am ready for the task, Coach."
Toppmöller stopped in his tracks and looked back at Lukas who stopped walking too. "That’s what I love to hear. Tune out the occasion, and just play the match. I’ll be counting on you."
"I won’t let you down, sir."
"Good. Now head to the training grounds; the session starts in 10 minutes."
Lukas nodded before he jogged past Toppmöller and headed for the training ground.
The coach watched Lukas jog and thought, "I hope the occasion doesn’t prove to be too big for him to handle."
* * *
The atmosphere which was already heated, seed to boil over as the players jogged onto the stadium with their training bib on for warm ups.
It was 20:00, just 30 minutes before kick-off of undoubtedly one of the biggest gas in the current Bundesliga. Although there was no historic rivalry between the two clubs, their current positions on the league elevated the anticipation for the match.
The Deutsche Bank Park was filled to its capacity and the ho fans roared when the Eintracht Frankfurt players jogged out for their warm-up session.
"Is he really starting?"
"Seems so, the starting lineup has been posted on the club’s IG."
"I wonder what Toppmöller is thinking to give a 16-year-old his first start in a match like this."
"He’s been great as a sub so far, but I don’t know if this is the right match to start him especially since we no longer have soone like Marmoush."
Fans had already been talking about the starting lineup on the internet since the club posted the lineups half an hour prior. The lineup excluded Marmoush — confirming his sale. What surprised most of the fans of both clubs, though, was the inclusion of Lukas Brandt in the starting lineup.
Like everything on the internet, there were several opinions. But the prevailing sentint was that the match was too important to give a 16-year-old his first start in the Bundesliga. @notJoaoG was on the Eintracht Frankfurt Instagram comnt section fighting for his friend’s honour.
Lukas, however, was generally unbothered. He knew people would talk. He was a huge football fan too so he knew how he would feel if he had learned that a kid was about to start such an important match. So he didn’t even open any social dia apps.
It doesn’t matter how good his ability to ignore distractions was, there was no need to give unfair criticism a chance to disturb his state of mind.
His focus was all on the match, he would see what they had to say after the match.
Lukas did his warm-up routines as usual — stretches with the fitness coach, then so ball work.
He juggled the ball effortlessly, launched it into the sky, and trapped it perfectly. Then he did it again, and again, and again as if to say: "This is no fluke — I’m really like that." But he wasn’t actually thinking of showing off, he had already tuned out the crowd, who were now cheering whenever he killed the ball’s montum, and was completely focused on stopping the ball.
"That’s Frankfurt’s new kid? His first touch is nice," Karim Adeyemi said to his teammates who were standing in a group with him. A few of them looked over to Lukas, and saw him trap the ball again — perfectly.
"I can do that," Julian Brandt responded.
"Yeah sure, don’t go embarrass yourself and the team. Wait you’re both Brandts, what if he’s your cousin?" Felix Ncha said, causing so of his teammates to chuckle.
"He might be," Brandt responded, laughing.
"He looks like he’s good with his feet. But he’s still a kid, I’ll make him feel my presence once the match starts," Nico Schlotterbeck said as he stretched out his hamstrings.
"You saw Frankfurt’s last two gas, he can create and he can finish, we must not underestimate him." Emre Can, the Dortmund captain, interrupted the conversation. He needed to remind his team about how important this ga was. They were currently 10th in the league and couldn’t afford another loss here.
"Don’t give him any room to breathe. He played as an attacking midfielder in his previous two gas, but this ti, he’s playing with Götze — also an attacking midfielder — so we don’t know how they will structure themselves.
We just have to rember the ga plan we’ve walked on all week, and be ready to react to whatever they cook up." Can ended the conversation with motivation for the team.
* * *
"Good evening to you all from all parts of the world. It is a wonderful evening as we get ready for kick off in a ga that could prove vital by the end of the season. Third-place Eintracht Frankfurt take on out-of-form Borussia Dortmund at the Deutsche Bank Park. I am Wolff-Christoph Fuss, and I hope you all enjoy this match," the comntator for Sky Sports Deutschland, one of the broadcasters of the Bundesliga in Germany, began the match comntary.
The ho fans cheered at the top of their lungs as the players walked out of the dugout with the referees leading the way. The emotion was at its peak. Drums and other musical instrunts were being played as loudly as possible from the Nordwestkurve where the Ultras were gathered.
Lukas felt the stark difference in the atmosphere from just a mont ago when he had co out for the warm-ups. It was electric. The cheers of the ho fans. The defiant cheers of the away fans packed in one corner. He took it all in. This was what football was all about.
"FWEEE" The match kicked off with the referee’s whistle. Ekitike took the kick off for Eintracht Frankfurt.
Borussia Dortmund had Kobel in goal, Bensebaini, Schlotterbeck, Anton, and Ryerson in defense. Can, Groß, and Ncha were in midfield. Gittens and Brandt on each flank, and Guirassy up top.
"Dortmund will look to break out of their streak of bad form while Frankfurt will want to extend their winning streak to three. This is set to be one of the stand out gas of the season. The lead up to this match has been dominated by one thing, though, the inclusion of 16-year-old Lukas Brandt in the starting lineup for Frankfurt. The coach has decided to trust him. Would he justify his coach’s faith in him? We will see in 90 minutes."
Almost as if responding to the comntary, Lukas made his move.
A/N: Trust , in real life, they will absolutely talk about his age and the fact he’s starting in such a ga so much.
Found out I had been spelling Toppmöller wrong all this while. My bad. Have a nice day. Also Privilege Chapters have been added. Please check it out if you can.
Love y’all
-Writ
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