God Of football

Chapter 36: Pre-season in Japan

Izan stared at his Instagram account with a puzzled face. ”Is this my account” he thought. Izan looked on at the increase in followers on his account.

He had just 700 followers the day before. And most of them were people he knew from school,his academy days and a few other friends and families.

But now it had gone from 700 to 47,467 followers in just 24 hours and it would increase everytime he refreshed the page.

Izan quickly went to his twitter and checked his account.[ It was twitter at this point in time for all those babies who donʼt know or donʼt remember]

Izan saw that the recently created account had 11000 followers. Izan knew just how hard it was to get followers on twitter and to get this much in less than a day was wonderful.[ itʼs really hard]

Izan quickly followed back a few of his teammates as they had followed him too.

Jose Gaya quickly sent him a congratulatory message. He had just seen the news of Izan signing the contract.

Izan thanked him and replied to a few messages from Sosa,Olivia and some friends from the academy.

Izan after replying to their messages quickly went to freshen and after bathing,Izan put on some comfortable clothes and went down for breakfast.

Izan chatted with his family and they had a conversation on what he was going to do now that he was going into his final year.

Izan decided that he would complete high school first before he would think about stuffs like that.

Soon it was noon and it was time for Izan to head to the training complex. Izan after he got there was greeted by some of his teammates who had gotten there earlier.

The players were now comfortable with Izan and they had accepted him as a teammate and not just some brat who got to play the matches with some connections.

The players who didnʼt know Izan from his youth academy days didnʼt really know much about his capabilities but Izan had shown them what he was capable of in the matches he played in even at his young age.

The ones who knew from his academy days just took it as a reminder of how talented he was.

The training started after the players had arrived and Izan proved his prowess in the training match by scoring and assisting numerous times after they were done with the fitness session.

After the training match,some of the players decided to take some rest. Izan on the other hand took a ball and set up some dummies to train his freekicks.

The players looked on as he shot the ball into the back of the net from 28 metres out. Izanʼs technique and power were impeccable and the players couldnʼt deny it.

Cillessen, a former FC Barcelona goalkeeper who was now in Valencia saw Izanʼs freekick and offered to be in the goalpost for the freekicks.

Izan didnʼt refuse as any live person would be better practice for him than a dummy,not to mention cillessen who was a great goalkeeper.

Coach Baraja and Coach Moreno looked on as cillesen got in-between the goalposts.

The players too looked on at the contest between Izan and Cillessen. Izan placed the ball on a comfortable spot and took a few steps back.

Izan with a graceful run-up sent the ball over the dummies. Cillessen stared on as the ball was coming at him. He took a few steps and tried to get a touch on the ball but the curl on the ball was greater than his determination.

The ball homed into the back of the net and all the surrounding players and staff couldnʼt help but admire the freekick.

Coach Baraja then and there wanted to put Izan in charge of setpieces but he knew it wouldnʼt be a great move so he just kept quiet.

Izan took a few attempts and Cillessen was able to save just one.

After the training session.Coach Baraja made the players gather around him. He relayed some pointers to them before telling them that they would be having their pre-season tournament in Japan.

This got some of the players excited as a few of the players were either fans of Anime,Manga or just wanted to see cute Japanese girls.

Izan who heard this was feeling ecstatic. This was because his mother and sister also had plans to go to Japan.

”Its been a while since I saw grandma and grandpa.This is nice” thought Izan.

The players quickly dispersed after the briefing. Some went to wash down and left afterwards. Others just went straight home. Izan after washing down waited for his mother to pick him up.

After Komi picked up Izan, he told her about the pre-season tour in Japan.

Komi was happy about it as she was saddened recently when she saw that Izan wouldnʼt be able to come to Japan because he was called for the pre-season tour.

After they got home, Komi informed Hori about it and she too was happy. Izan quickly went up and washed up again as he always did.

He informed Olivia about the pre-season tour. Olivia kept wishing she could go with them but it wasnʼt to be as she was studying for her mid-term exam.

Izan chatted a bit more with her before he checked his Socials. His Instagram account although had no posts,now had over 80k followers.

Izan decided to post some of the pictures of the training match he had played in. He posted it and quickly left his account.

Izan scrolled through the transfer news and most of the news was still about the Mbappe to Real Madrid transfer saga. This was because if P.S.G donʼt accept the offer,Mbappe could leave on a free the following season provided he doesnʼt extend his contract.

Izan scrolled through some more before deciding to rest.

The next few days went on smoothly and quickly. Izan continued training and spending time with his family. He was trying to meet the expectations of the club and the fans. And Izan at least wanted to give them some assurance by performing great at the pre-season tour.

Komi who saw this was a bit sad and at the same time happy. She was just feeling conflicted. Her little boy had now grown into a young man. She approached Izan one morning when he was getting ready to go and train.

Komi told Izan that resting sometimes too was okay. Izan just smiled at her motherʼs words before kissing her on the forehead.

”Iʼm okay Ma” he said before leaving. Komi just stared at the back of Izan as he got out of view.

”Look at our boy hernan” Komi muttered as Izan disappeared from her view.

The training kept going on and Izan could see the results of his training. Even without his using his stat points,Izan could feel changes in his game.

Most of his teamates had recognised Izan as a kid with potential but few had actually accepted that he was one of the better players in the team.

This was because even though Izan had performed spectacularly well in the chances and matches he had been given,it had just been season end matches with nothing at stake or nothing to be gained for both teams.

Izan continued performing well and on the final day, Coach baraja announced the 28 man squad for the pre-season tournament and the 18 man matchday squad for the first match which included yours truly.

Izan felt happy that he was part of the matchday squad for the first match. Izan told Komi when she picked him up from training.

The buildup to the pre-season got exciting as a lot of transfers had been made in the past month.

Real Madrid had just concluded the signing of Jude Bellingham for an impressive 103 million euros.

A lot was going on in the transfermarket and a lot was still yet to be finalised. Izan who was reading the article surrounding the transfers saw a text message.

He looked and saw that it was from his Agent Miranda. Miranda had proved to be a good fit as an agent for Izan as both of them just clicked.

Izan read the message and smiled.

”Perform well at the pre-season and draw potential brand offers to yourself. Your socials are already growing exponentially so keep it up” it read.

Izan then opened Instagram and went to his account which had now been verified.

Izan Hernandez

Post Followers Following

18 1.4M 62

Izan looked at his Instagram account and felt a sense of accomplishment. He quickly moved to twitter and it showed that he had 775k followers.

Izan quickly posted the preseason tour

Schedule on Instagram. The first match would be on the 26th of July 2023 which was 17 days from the current date.

Izan turned off his phone before resting a bit in the car. The countdown to the preseason began.

Every single day was full of the same repetitive thing. Izan would wake up,then go on to complete the systemʼs daily mission.

After that,Izan would freshen up before going down for breakfast. After that, Izan would just laze around the whole day.

He would learn a bit then talk with Olivia for some time. The final day came and Izan was on the team bus headed towards Madrid.

The team would be flying their from the Madrid-Barajas airport. Izan in the bus just played some games. He was getting tired after a while so he decided to sleep.

Miranda had told Izan to make small video shots which could be posted on his Instagram and othe social media handles.

Izan did just that. A few photos and videos on the bus and on the plane to the Haneda Airport.

The flight time was 15 hours in total and the Valencia players were already filling tired. Izan decided to continue on getting the materials for his Socials.

Izan feeling ecstatic over returning to his motherʼs home country couldnʼt sleep much. And as an Anime fan, it was just the dream.

Even though Komi was from Japan and lived there most of her life, her kids had only been to Japan once.

And that was at the urging of Komiʼs parents. Izan finally decided to sleep after the fatigue caught up to him.

Izan woke up just to see the plane landing in the haneda airport. The players got out of the plane and were greeted by a bit of a cold morning in Tokyo.

The mist from the players mouth whenever they talked made it clear. Izan looked around and nodded.

The last and only time he was here was with his mother and sister when he and his sister were 10 and 8 respectively.

Izan breathed in the air before exhaling. The mist surrounding him was pushed away by his hot exhale.

The players followed suit as they were led out of the airport. As they players were getting out of the airport,they were surprised to see a considerable number of fans at the exit.

The players waved at these fans who immediately got excited after they saw the players. Izan saw a young boy holding a Valencia shirt with a sharpie.

Izan looked on and smiled at the fan before heading over towards him.

[ こんにちは.サインが欲しいですか ]

Konʼnichiwa. Sain ga hoshīdesu ka

(Hello there. Do you want an autograph)

Izan asked the kid in Japanese. The kid was surprised by Izanʼs fluid Japanese and now that the kid looked at Izan,he could tell he was somewhat Asian.

{ それはあなたです.私はあなたを知っています.イザンさんですね.セビージャ戦で2ゴールを挙げましたね.あなたの名前は日本人のように聞こえますが,同時にその青い目はとても日本人に見えません.ああ,話しすぎてごめんなさい}

Sore wa anatadesu. Watashi wa anata o shitte imasu. Izan-sandesu ne. Sebīja-sen de 2 gōru o agemashita ne. Anata no namae wa nihonjin no yō ni kikoemasuga, dōjini sono aoi me wa totemo nihonjin ni miemasen. Ā, hanashi sugite gomenʼnasai

(its you. I know you. Youʼre Izan. You scored 2 goals against sevilla. Your name sounds japanese but at the same time you donʼt really look japanese with those blue eye. Ah ,Iʼm sorry for talking too much)

Izan just stared on at the kid with a smile. He then asked for the kidʼs name and signed his name on the jersey with his autograph beside it.

{ ここだけの話,私のサインをもらったのはあなたが初めてです.}

Kokodakenohanashi, watashi no sain o moratta no wa anata ga hajimetedesu.

(Between you and me, you are the first person to get my autograph.)

Izan said before walking off,leaving the kid to his own world