God Of football

Chapter 1008: Record Breaking Day!

The final whistle at the Allianz Arena didn’t so much end a football match as it did close a Chapter of history.

Arsenal had beaten Bayern Munich 5-2.

It was a result that, on any other night, would have been the story.

But nobody was really talking about Arsenal.

Nobody was really talking about Bayern.

The whole football world and beyond were revolving around Izan.

After the game ended, it was almost like a calm before the storm as major media networks and companies wrote their articles and prepared, and by the time the sun rose the next morning, the front pages had already made up their minds.

THE TIMES — ”93 AND COUNTING. IS THERE ANYTHING THIS BOY CANNOT DO?”

MARCA — ”EL NIÑO ROMPE EL MUNDO” — The Boy Breaks The World

L’ÉQUIPE — ”PLUS QUE MESSI.” — More Than Messi.

BILD — ”WIR HABEN GERADE GESCHICHTE GESEHEN.” — We Just Watched History.

THE GUARDIAN — ”Izan Hernandez Miura scored his 93rd goal of the calendar year last night. We’re in November. There are still nine games to play before the season, and we genuinely don’t know where this ends.”

THE ATHLETIC — ”The hat-trick. The record. The 18-year-old from nowhere who has made Messi’s greatest season look less extraordinary. Explain that.”

The clip of his third goal, the one that took him to 93, a chip from the edge of the box catching the keeper offside before it kissed the underside of the bar and nestled in, was now the most-viewed video in Twitter’s history within four hours of the final whistle as it crossed 26 million views and was still counting.

The Monday night panel on Sky Sports hadn’t planned for this, and you could tell.

Gary Neville sat back in his chair with the look of a man who had run out of words, even though it was something they expected after Izan hit 90 goals.

”Another record I thought would be untouched, but it seems I should get that word out of my dictionary when it comes to that boy,” he said.

”I’ve watched Messi. I’ve watched Ronaldo. I was there for all of it. And I’m sitting here right now telling you, I still don’t have the language for what this kid is doing.”

Roy Keane, predictably, wasn’t in the business of sentiment.

But even he couldn’t quite manage his usual scowl.

”The record is the record,” he said flatly.

”Messi set it in one of the greatest individual seasons in the history of football. This boy has broken it in November. With nine games still to play.”

”I think I can finally say I have seen it all,” he questioned rhetorically.

Away from the light in the studio, the latest post from Izan’s account on Instagram was a simple photo of him on his knees after the third goal, arms out, eyes closed, the roar of the away end blurred behind him — it had forty-two million likes before midnight.

The caption was three words.

Todo a Dios!

The comments were different entirely with emojis, languages and flags from countries that don’t even have professional football leagues.

All of them were saying the same thing, but in their own way.

But it was the accounts that followed that really told the story.

@leomessi posted a photo, an old one, from 2012, of himself just after scoring his 91st goal with a single caption:

”Era tuyo desde el principio, crack. Disfrútalo.”

It was always yours, kid. Enjoy it.

It got 15 million likes in the first half an hour, but by the time the day ended, it had more than quadrupled.

But it wasn’t only him.

@lamineyamal posted a photo of himself watching the match on his phone from what appeared to be his living room, captioned simply:

”Did we do the DNA test between Izan and Leo?”

@erling.haaland was characteristically brief but funny.

”93. 🤯 Buy him a planet.”

Then, halfway through the day, Adidas also moved.

They posted 3 images.

The first was of Messi, a young 2012 Messi, in his Barcelona kit, mid-celebration, sitting on a throne with the number 91.

Following that was once again another image of Messi, but this time, he was on his feet, and was taking off the number from the head of the throne.

And in the next picture, another figure had entered the fray and, sitting on that throne, in his Arsenal white and red with one arm resting on the side like he’d been there his whole life, was Izan.

The caption read:

”HIM-Possible does not exist.”

HIM. Hernandez. Izan. Miura.

And like the record-breaking day it was, that post became the most shared brand post in Instagram history by the following morning.

But after that, ”What is next for Izan?” became the new subject matter.

Well, that question wasn’t left unanswered for long because in the 9 games remaining till the end of the year, it was a goal fest.

Firstly, Arsenal, on the back of their victory against Bayern, faced Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but the bridge couldn’t handle the ’Arsenal’ that the north London club had come with because at the end of the final whistle, the scoreline left people questioning themselves, and some agreeing if something should be done about it.

”Say what you want, but Mister doesn’t have a shred of empathy sometimes,” Nwaneri said as the players walked over to the away crowd, applauding them.

”Look on the bright side, our fans are happy,” Odegaard said as his eyes shifted to the 7-1 scoreline on the scoreboard.

He then glanced back at Nwaneri before saying, nodding in a particular direction before speaking.

”Plus, I don’t think it’s the gaffer we should be worried about when Izan was the one who came on from the bench and added 4!”

Hearing his name, Izan turned to face Odegaard, who questioned further.

”How many does this make it now?” but Izan just laughed at that before turning back to face the applauding crowd.

”I am just doing what I am paid for,” he muttered, though he didn’t like how that came out as.