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.
His foot, which looked like it was locked and loaded for a power shot, suddenly relaxed as it got to the ball and just touched it back to the left. Imdiately, Lukas feigned a shot again.
Kristensen, who had blocked nothing, tried to regain his composure as he went for the second block. But Lukas cut the ball to the opposite side again before pushing it past Kristensen and into the box.
As Kristensen turned to give chase, his previous attempted blocks caused him to start his run with an awkward posture, making his ankles give out as he lost balance and fell to the ground.
Koch and Arthur were now in front of Lukas as he got to the ball behind Kristensen. Arthur threw his legs out toward the ball to try and poke it out of Lukas’s control, while Koch tried to make sure there was no shooting angle from the position Lukas was standing in.
Lukas saw the incoming leg, and in one swift motion, he dragged the ball back out of Arthur’s reach with his studs, pushed it to the side with the outside of his right foot, and tapped it forward with the inside of the sa foot.
He skipped over the tackling foot as he got to the ball in space to shoot. Instead of shooting, however, he waited for Koch to co block him.
"You should have taken the chance while you had it," Koch said as he appeared between Lukas and Trapp.
"The chance is still there though," Lukas said as he hit the ball with the inside of his right foot.
The ball went through Koch’s legs, which tried to shut a mont too late, and traveled to the bottom-left corner of Trapp’s post.
Trapp dived low, but he was nowhere close as the ball hit the inside of the post before hitting the back of the net.
"Oh c’mon! This is just not fair," Arthur said as he joined Kristensen on the ground, although his was voluntary.
"Ahhh!! Hahahaha! You should all be ashad of yourselves," Larsson scread as he laughed his way toward them. A few other players joined him chuckling. "Imagine getting owned every single training session by a 16-year-old, can’t be ."
"Oh for sure, it can never be you. You wanna go 1v1 with now?" Koch asked, raising one of his eyebrows.
"Hard pass! But still, Lukas, you’re not normal, are you?"
"I have been saying this since day one. He’s not normal," Uzun said as he tried to drag Kristensen off the ground.
Kristensen just shook his head slowly with a smile as he stood up. "Thankfully we don’t have to face him in a competitive ga. Imagine having to deal with this in a match? I’d just give up."
"Yo, don’t be too sure. Bayern might snatch him this sumr. Then you will have to face him next season."
"Jeez, Hugo! Don’t say scary stuff like that, what the f***, man!" Koch said as shivers ran down his spine.
"Why is Bayern coming up in my training ground?" Toppmöller asked as he strolled into the penalty box where the players were gathered chatting.
"It’s shorter Hugo with his normal stupid statents," Collins responded.
"Shorter Hugo, you want Lukas to go to Bayern? You want to play against him?" Toppmöller asked as he turned to Larsson, who was trying to hide behind Lukas.
"Hahaha... Of course not, coach. It was a joke... a joke... Hahaha," Larsson responded as he scratched his head.
"Is that so... I wasn’t aware we signed a codian too when we signed you."
"Ahem... It’s a 1 1 package. Buy one, get one free."
"I see... I don’t take freebies, though," Toppmöller responded, then looked at Lukas. "Nice work today, Luke."
"Thanks, coach. Also, I wasn’t contacted by any club," Lukas responded with a deadpan expression, causing a few players and staff to start laughing.
"I never take Hugo seriously, so don’t worry about it," Toppmöller said before turning to scan the players. "We leave for Ro early tomorrow morning. Go ho, get enough rest. You won’t have much ti to rest tomorrow. We will have a short session in the morning and leave for Italy in the evening."
* * *
"I should be asleep by now..." Lukas said as he turned over on his bed to the opposite side.
"Don’t let hold you up, then," Joanna’s voice ca from the phone glued to his ear.
"No, it’s not you. I just can’t seem to fall asleep."
"You’re excited for the ga in Italy?"
"Definitely," he responded as a smile spread across his lips.
In his previous life, Lukas had never left the country—not even for a short trip or vacation. He spent his whole life in the city of Darmstadt and only went to neighboring cities when the national team was playing a ga there and he was able to get a ticket.
It felt like he was more excited about being in a new country for the first ti than the actual match against AS Roma—and for good reason.
Eintracht Frankfurt had already booked their place in the last 16 of the competition, so the results of this ga held little significance to them, at least in the grand sche. Sure, a win to end the league stage would be nice to continue the winning streak and keep confidence high, but a loss wouldn’t make a dent on their season as long as they were able to shake it off in ti for the next Bundesliga match.
Lukas wasn’t thinking that deeply about it, though. He was just excited to visit The Eternal City.
"Okay, I’ll try and sleep now."
"Goodnight, Luke."
"Sleep tight, Jo."
The call ended, and Lukas closed his eyes to try to sleep, but kept turning around and smiling. After several attempts, he finally drifted off.
* * *
Lukas stepped off the plane, the air cooler than he expected, carrying a slight tinge of exhaust from service vehicles on the tarmac. The sun was low, casting long orange and pink streaks across the planes and concrete, making the airport look softer than he had imagined.
Voices around him sounded different — fast, lodic, with intonations he didn’t recognize. He could hear luggage being rolled along the jet bridge and occasional announcents in Italian, though none of it made sense to him.
Everything felt unfamiliar but not overwhelming. The fading sunlight made the city ahead seem both distant and inviting, and for the first ti, he truly felt he was sowhere completely new.
As they walked to the bus chartered to take them to the hotel, reporters and a multitude of Roma fans, who had been waiting impatiently for their arrival, started rushing.
The clicks and snapshots from the reporters were nothing like anything Lukas had experienced in Germany.
This was a ga of the utmost importance to AS Roma, so everyone in the city was interested in the match — whether Roma fans hoping for a spot in the playoffs, or Lazio fans praying for the downfall of their closest rivals.
"Yeah, this definitely wasn’t built in a day," Lukas thought to himself with a chuckle as he managed to get into the bus.
"How co we don’t have a single Italian player in our team? Not even soone who has spent soti playing in Italy." Knauff asked as he sat down on the seat behind Lukas.
"And no one who can speak the language either," Larsson added.
The club had hired a translator to help with matters like addressing the reporters they had just t, but it was still surprising that they had no Italian player nor coaching staff on the team — not even soone who had played or coached in Italy before.
"So how do we get around in this city without a guide?" Knauff asked.
"We ca here to play a match, not to ’get around.’ Do not forget that," Trapp, the team captain, said as he took a seat on the bus.
"Yes, capitan."
"Yo, Luke, how many languages can you speak?" Larsson asked as he turned around to look at Lukas.
"German and English," he responded.
"Oh, I know one more than you, then. I know Swedish too, in addition to German and English."
"Yeah, sure, buddy. You win," Lukas said, turning Larsson’s head to face forward.
"If you can understand what he considers ’English’, I’ll pay you whatever amount you want," Ekitike said causing the team to burst out laughing as the bus took off.
"Wait, TT, can I take language classes in the LTC?"
[*Not when you have an Ego summoned. The Kevin De Bruyne Ego is still there.*]
"Argh! Why did you have to remind ? I’m getting PTSD from the kind of passes he expects from ."
[*Well, you summoned him and gave it the goals yourself. He only created tasks to help achieve the set goals.*]
"Yeah, I know... But how the hell does soone curve a header?"
A/N: Barely able to get this done on ti. Has been such a long and stressful day. You all stay safe.
-Writ
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