Become A Football Legend-Chapter 36: Feed Me

With Lukas conducting, Eintracht Frankfurt II were banging on the door. In the 75th minute, a through ball from Lukas put the center forward, who scored the first goal, face-to-face with the goalkeeper with acres of space. But he fired the ball into the evening sky.

The home team’s defense was looking impossible to crack, they were determined to hold the lead till the end. But they were facing a legend in the making, they couldn’t stop the force forever.

And Lukas made the last 10 minutes of the game, seem like it would never end.

81st minute.

The Stuttgarter’s coach was now screaming defensive instructions at the top of his lungs.

Due to the minimal crowd, the instructions could be heard reverberating through the field.

"RYAN, MARC, JACOB, FOLLOW HIM! DON’T LET THE KID TURN!"

Lukas had only been on the field for 10 minutes, but he was proving to be a real headache for the team.

Lukas drifted out wide to the left hand side. From the midfield, the ball was launched at him. With his eyes glued to the ball’s trajectory, he adjusted his position to anticipate the ball’s landing spot. He glanced back down to see a home team player closing down on him.

As the ball landed right at the spot he had predicted, he controlled the ball with the outside of his right foot — dragging it away from the swinging foot of the defender.

Just as he got away from the first, the second defender was already blocking his path. Lukas looked to his side, and saw a teammate standing in space just outside the penalty arc.

He had successfully drawn the attention of the opposition team due to how he controlled the game since coming on. But the game was not a 1 vs 11.

The second defender was well built — buff even — and he planned to test Lukas’ strength and he charged in with a shoulder challenge.

Lukas, however, had no intention of engaging in a challenge he would lose. He passed the ball to his teammate standing outside the penalty arc and jumped backwards to evade the shoulder charge.

"SHOOT!" Lukas screamed as the ball got to the intended target.

And his teammate obliged.

BOOM*

He unleashed a first time shot.

A home team player in the box, threw himself at the ball’s path, hoping for at least a deflection that would reduce the shot’s power, or take it off target.

The ball scraped his knee, but continued on it’s path.

The goalkeeper dived, full stretch towards the top left corner where the ball was headed.

As if the gods were on his side, he got a strong right palm on the ball.

BANG*

The ball deflected of his hand and crashed crossbar and returned back into play.

As if stunned, the defenders were a second slow to clear the ball, not just the home team; it seemed everyone on the pitch had expected the ball to go in. The player who took the shot was now standing still, head in arms.

The delay was barely a couple seconds long, but one person was ready to take advantage of that slight err in judgement.

After the pass, Lukas had evaded the shoulder charge and watched his teammate take the shot, immediately he saw the direction the shot was heading — left top corner — he moved to position himself by the left-hand side of the penalty box.

As the ball crashed into the crossbar, it headed towards Lukas’s position. While the defenders where ball watching, he brought the ball down with his chest, and before it hit the ground, he unleashed a volley.

The ball flew towards the opposite corner of the post. The goalkeeper, who had just pulled off a wonderful save, tried again but couldn’t stop it this time.

"GOALLL!!!"

The away fans, exploded once more.

Lukas ran towards where they were gathered and pumped his fist as his teammates jumped on him.

"Oh my God, this is crazy!!"

The fans screamed as they hugged each other. They celebrated even more than the players on the field.

"Dad, what’s his name?" A young boy wearing an "Omar Marmoush" jersey asked his father standing next to him.

"Hmmm.. I don’t know. He has the name ’Brandt’ on his shirt. Let me see if there’s an update on the team list." The dad used his phone, which he had been using to record the match, and opened the transfermarkt website.

EINTRACHT FRANKFURT II → SQUAD LIST → #36 LUKAS BRANDT. Joined July 1st, 2024.

"His name is Lukas Brandt. He apparently played for SV Darmstadt 98 U17 team and just joined our club this month."

This surprised a few people around him as they had had thought Lukas was a player who came up through the youth ranks at Riederwald academy.

"It doesn’t matter," a lady standing next to the man said, "he’s one of us now."

The match resumed as the home team kicked off. Five minutes plus extra time to either hold on for a draw, or take a risk for an opening win. A risk that might very much end up backfiring.

Lukas had dropped deep to defend, as the coach instructed. Coach Dennis was taking a more conservative approach — defend well, and strike if a counter attack opportunity presents itself.

It seemed the match would end as a draw. The home team, although one man down, kept pushing for a winner, though.

The stalemate remained until the 89th minute.

The home team right winger received the ball from his defensive midfielder, and started running down the touchline.

He was subbed on in less than ten minutes prior, to inject pace into the attack, and was doing just that.

The Eintracht fullback who was to cover that part of the field, was already out of breath as he had played the full 90 minutes.

As he got close to the byline, he raised his leg to cross. The full back dove in to deflect the cross.

But the ball never left his foot.

With ease he chopped past the defender and cut the ball back to the second striker who was just approaching in the box.

As the ball travelled to the striker’s foot, he looked around to make sure no one was close enough to intercept the ball or stop him from taking his shot.

As he thought the coast was clear enough, he decided he could take a touch to position himself better for the shot.

But that single touch had given Lukas more than enough time to track him down.

As he raised his legs to take the shot, some Eintracht defenders dived in the path to block it. But Lukas wasn’t even gonna let him take the shot.

At full stretch, Lukas poked the ball away from him just before he got the ball.

The striker’s foot collided with the back of Lukas’s as Lukas poked the ball away from him before rolling to the ground from the hit.

FWEEE*

The referee blew for a foul. A foul just inside Lukas’s own penalty box. It was a quasi- goalkick, and for some reason this made the home team relax.

Lukas got up immediately, grabbed the ball, placed it on the spot and hit it hard.

He had already spotted his striker sprinting down the halfway line.

After the first goal, he had told the striker "whenever I get the ball, stay onside, but start running," and the #9 had done exactly that all game.

The lobbed pass caught everyone off guard.

The home team defense were all in the opposition box. It had been an all out attack, and being one-man down, made it even more difficult to defend.

The ball bounced just in front of the striker. It was placed perfectly, with back spin to not take it away from him.

One header to bring the ball back in front of him, and he was off.

The defenders scrambled to catch him, they tried pulling his shirt, but he wasn’t having none of it.

The Eintracht Frankfurt II No. 9 was one of the few overage players allowed in the reserve level. And he was muscular enough to not be dragged back by U23 players.

As he muscled his way down the field, the goalkeeper was caught in two minds about whether to come out and smother the ball, or stay on his line.

He decided to come out.

And that was a wrong decision.

The striker glanced to see the goalkeeper running to close him down, steadied himself, and just chipped him.

The goalkeeper who was trying to make himself as big as possible, was caught off guard as the ball went over his head and settled in the empty net.

"GOALLLL!!!"

This time the bench went crazy.

Coaching staff hugging each other. The teammates who were on the bench ran to the touchline where the goal scorer had gone to celebrate.

Lukas had a huge smile on his face as he ran to his number 9.

"It’s all you man! It’s all you," the striker screamed as they embraced.

"Keep feeding me like this, and I might just be called to the first team soon," he added.

"Well, I gotta do that too — I want a call-up just as bad," Lukas responded as some players ruffled his hair to congratulate him for the assist.

A/N: Guys sorry for the lack of Chapter yesterday. This was locked in the privilege tier which I didn’t even set. I cannot delete the tier. But I believe it should be available once I upload another Chapter.

Love y’all.

-Writ.

New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on free(w)ebnovel(.)com