"Lukas Brandt with the tackle to win the ball from his penalty box, makes a 70-ter sprint to the edge of the opposition penalty, beating two players in the process and outrunning five others, and just when you thought he might go all the way alone, he makes a precise pass for Ekitike to slot away. Four for Eintracht Frankfurt, two apiece for Brandt and Ekitike."
A few seconds after the restart, the referee’s whistle blew to signal the end of the ga and the man of the match was announced.
"Unsurprisingly, Dan, Lukas Brandt has been nad as the player of the match. That is three gas in a row in all competitions where he has been the best player on the pitch. This ti he only played 30-odd minutes, but his contributions in that ti were enough to win him the award."
"Yes, Oliver, he was phenonal in this match. Changed the direction of the ga imdiately he ca on. Well-deserved player-of-the-match award."
On the pitch, Lukas exchanged handshakes with the opposition team before walking to the away fans’ section where the fans were chanting his na and clapping to a simple rhythm.
LUUUUKS BRANDT! Clap-clap-clap
It was a simple rhythm, but Lukas was moved as he looked at the crowd and applauded back at them.
"The fans love you, huh?" Larsson asked teasingly as he put his hands around Lukas’s shoulder and ruffled his hair.
"They have no choice but to," Lukas responded as he pushed Larsson to the side and kept applauding the fans.
A few tens of minutes later, Lukas was in the locker room sitting on a bench with his player-of-the-match trophy beside him when Uzun walked up to him.
"How many of these do you plan on winning?" he asked as he picked up the trophy and examined it.
"As many as I can. I have to build a trophy cabinet ’cause I might run out of space in my bookshelf at ho soon."
"Oh now you’re bragging, huh? I don’t bla you, though, I would do the sa if I won it three tis in a row."
Lukas chuckled as he playfully snatched the trophy out of Uzun’s hand and put it in his bag.
"Good job today, boys," Toppmöller said, interrupting the conversation as he entered the locker room with Trapp by his side — they had just returned from the post-match press conference. "It was a hard-fought victory, and I’m sure you noticed where we were lacking compared to them and where we need to work on. That work starts tomorrow morning," Toppmöller concluded as he turned around and walked out amidst tired groans from the players.
"Take a shower, and do what you need to do. The bus leaves for Frankfurt in an hour," assistant coach Buck said, causing a few players to rush to the locker room shower.
* * *
2 goals and 1 assist in 30 minutes for 16-year-old Lukas Brandt as Frankfurt beat Hoffenheim 4-2.
Lukas looked at the Instagram post from 433: a photo of him bowing to an extrely agitated crowd with a smile on his face as so of them flipped him off. It was the perfect contrast between his and the ho crowd’s emotions.
He opened the comnt section of the post.
@Frankfuter4life: Oh we have our own star!! What Musiala? What Wirtz? Lukas clears!
@Neverlosen: Alright calm down with the blasphemy. He is alright, but he’s not yet on the sa level as Flo or Jamal.
@Iaintracht: The youngest goalscorer and assister in Bundesliga history, 6 goals and 6 assists in 5 gas in all competitions while starting only 2 of those gas.
@ManSanMia_forever: Everyone can get a good run of form once in a while. He is undoubtedly in form, but that’s just for now. We’ll see how/if he’s being talked about by the end of the season.
Lukas had a grin as he looked through the comnt section of several posts talking about the match both on Instagram and on X.
The prevailing sentint was that he was having a wonderful start to his career, but that could change at any mont, so they had to wait and see.
Just as he scrolled through the app, he received a notification for a ssage from Javi, which he opened imdiately.
Dad: "You might be resting from the ga, so I’ll not call. I couldn’t watch the ga live but I saw the highlights and you played so well. I’m so proud of you."
"Thanks, Dad," Lukas replied as he put his phone back down.
His father couldn’t make it to the ga as he had to give a presentation at the university about an update to his thesis, which he had been working on for almost a year.
As if a thought suddenly struck him, he picked his phone back up, opened his contacts, and called soone.
The line connected after the first ring.
"Hello."
"Hi, Luke," the familiar soft voice ca through the phone.
"Jo, how’re you doing?"
"I’m fine. Just preparing sothing to eat. I was gonna call you when I was done."
"Nice. What are you making?"
"Käsespätzle. I didn’t know we ran out of onions, though. João’s gone to buy so from down the street."
"That’s the least he could do if he wants to eat."
"Exactly! I was able to catch the second half of your ga after my lesson. You played so well."
Joanna was taking extra lessons to prepare for the final year exams which would go a long way in determining her Abitur grade.
"Yeah? Of course I had to put on a performance for you."
"I was worried, though, after that attempted tackle on the lead-up to the fourth goal. It looked so dangerous. If he had connected, you might have been injured."
"It’s alright. I was faster than him, so there was no way he was getting to ."
"Still, please be careful. There have been so nasty injuries from tackles like that."
"I will be careful."
"Good," she replied. Then all of a sudden, the volu of her voice dropped just a bit louder than a whisper. "So when are you gonna be back ho?"
"You miss ?" Lukas asked, lowering his voice to match hers.
"...Yes, I do."
"I... miss you too."
"You say that but you never co back."
"I was ho just last week, though."
"My point exactly. It’s been a whole week!"
"I know.. I’ll be back soon. We have an away match against Roma in about four days. I’m assuming we’ll start training for it tomorrow and travel on the 29th. I don’t know if I’ll be able to co before that match."
"I know your schedule more than you, so I understand. I was just venting ’cause I miss you. Do what you need to do, dear. I’ll be here whenever you co back."
"Thanks, Jo. You’re the best."
"Of course I am! Gotta go, João is back..."
"Okay, tell him I called."
"I won’t."
"Yeah you will."
"Byeee."
The call ended and Lukas put his phone back in his pants pocket and closed his eyes.
Larsson, who was sitting beside him and pretending to be asleep this whole ti, sneakily opened his eyes to look at Lukas. He smiled as he closed them back and went to sleep.
* * *
"Robbo, don’t just let him breeze past you! Rasmus, help him!" the assistant coach was screaming instructions at the defensive line.
It was the last training session of the day before their flight to Italy for the final Matchday of the Europa League group stage.
Lukas was with the ball bearing down on the defenders as they steadied themselves to stop him.
It was a training drill Toppmöller introduced a few weeks ago after it beca clear that Lukas’s dribbling and ball-retention abilities were already the best on the team. He had Lukas face several combinations of the back three defenders. This ti, it was Robin Koch, Rasmus Kristensen, and Arthur Theate.
Lukas strolled with the ball to the edge of the left-hand side of the penalty box which they were defending. He could see Koch and Kristensen already crouched down, waiting to nick the ball away from him, while Theate stood behind the two defenders in case Lukas was able to go through them.
As he got to the line, he stepped over the ball to see if any of the defenders would bite — none did.
He tried it again. Still, no one fell for it.
They looked to have learnt their lesson from previous sessions where they tried to guess which way he would go and he just effortlessly went the other way.
"You know all I have to do is score, right? I don’t have to get past you guys to do that," Lukas said as he pushed the ball down towards the middle in the direction of the penalty arc.
They knew it could be a bait, but they also knew he could easily shoot and score from there, so the defenders had no choice but to follow him and try and block the shot.
A grin appeared on his lips as he swung his right foot to shoot and Kristensen threw himself into the path the ball would take if struck from there.
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