With the transfer of Takefusa Kubo to Real Madrid, changes were taking place in Japanese football.
Just a year before Vissel Kobe, a professional football club which played in Japanese league 1 had secured the signature of one of the greatest midfielder in the world. It had managed to sign Andres Iniesta from Barcelona.
Also at that same year in 2018’s world cup, Japanese men’s national team had performed really well in the tournament.
Even though they had been placed in the group with the likes of Colombia, Senegal and Poland, they had managed to defeat Colombia, a country from south America which performed really well in the previous world cup.
With James Rodriguez winning the golden boot, they had managed to reach quarter finals of the world cup 2014.
Japanese team also managed to pull out a draw against Senegal, one of the powerhouse football nation of African continent.
However they fell short against Poland as they suffered a narrow defeat of 1:0.
Even so, they still managed to secure a spot on the round of 16 by placing second in their group. While both Senegal and Japan were tied in score points, they managed to place above Senegal on overall goal difference and barely clenched the second spot in their group.
In round of sixteen they faced against Belgium, the team which was ranked 1st in FIFA men’s team ranking that year. With all the players from it’s golden generation being at their absolute peak, they were one of the favourites to win the tournament.
Belgium with the likes of Lukaku, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne and many other world class players was a team packed with stars.
Even so, they held their ground against that star packed team of Belgium and demonstrated a spectacular game worthy of praises. However they still couldn’t pull up a victory against that star packed team of Belgium and suffered a defeat of 3:2. And just like that their journey in 2018 world cup came to an end.
And even though their journey came to an end that year, everybody could see that football was developing rapidly in Japan.
**** ****
As Nanami Sumi broke the news regarding the transfer of Takefusa Kubo to Real Madrid, something clicked in him.
‘I must make my decision today as well.’
Some months ago, Eric had notified him about the interests from several youth teams from all over Japan.
However he had been delaying his decision since he still had more than a year left before he could graduate from elementary school.
But now that the tides were getting stronger, he’d have to either jump onboard or get left behind. And if he wanted to accomplish his goals, he couldn’t afford to stay still.
While thinking about the changes taking place in Japanese football, he had been staring blankly at the ground beneath his feet.
“Hiro!! Hiro!!”
Upon seeing him staring blankly at the ground for a long time, Nanami began to call his name.
As she called his name, he abruptly lifted his head up and turned his gaze towards her.
Her brows drawn together, she began to ask questions him as she moved closer to him. “Are you not feeling well Hiro?”
Her words brought him back to his senses.
“Ah!! Yeah!! I’m alright.” He took a step back and blurted out as he regained back his senses.
She then paused her movement as she noticed him stepping back. “Oh okay!!” She mumbled and retracted her step.
“Nanami!! Sizuka sensei is looking for you.” A female student with glasses who came out nowhere exclaimed as she noticed Nanami conversing with Hiro and Akashi.
“Wait for a minute. I’ll go to her office right away.” She intoned. “I’ll have to leave for now. So let’s continue our conversation some other times.”
“Well then! It was nice talking to you Hiro kun, Nobara kun.” She wished them well while revealing a gentle smile in her face and left the scene.
And as soon as she left, Akashi who had been silent for a long time, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Man! There’s something really magical in her smile. Whenever she smiles, my heart starts to beat faster. I just can’t stop looking at her.” Akashi intoned sounding all excited.
“Yeah!! Yeah!! Now let’s head to class.”
He couldn’t care less about her smile or her beauty. All he cared about was improving himself and achieving his goals.
**** ****
Later at that night, he was sitting all by himself at his study table scribbling something on a sheet of paper.
In that sheet of paper names of several teams were written in it. The names of written on the paper read as such;
“Vissel Kobe, Yokohama F Marinos, FC Tokyo, Urawa Red Diamonds, Kashima Antlers, Cerezo Osaka, Gamba Osaka and Kawasaki Frontale.”
“If I want to improve myself and debut early, this are the teams I should chose.” He contemplated as he looked at the list of teams he prepared.
“I’ll only be 12 years old by the time I graduate elementary school. And because of that, they might place me in U-15 category instead of U-18. And in U-15 category the previous year’s winner was FC Tokyo. However Kashima Antlers also managed to reach the final in the previous year’s U-18 category. ”
“Also if I join Kawasaki Frontale, I might even get to play with Kaoru Mitoma for a brief moment. And if I join Vissel Kobe, I might get to play with Iniesta too. Damn every team looks promising.” He rubbed his hair with both of his hands as he tried to choose the team he should join to elevate his career further.
Even though he was scouted by most of the teams, not everyone granted him direct entry in their club. Some of them had placed some conditions as well. They had placed a condition that required him to pass their trials if he wanted to enroll in their academy.
“Argh!! What should I do?” Unable to decide on the team, he kept on staring at the list he prepared.
Feeling restless, he hopped on his bed. With his face facing towards the ceiling, he held the list above his head.
“Kawasaki Frontale and Vissel kobe looks the more promising option. But those teams are already packed with stars and I’m not sure if I’ll even get to play among such conditions. So I should probably look for the team where I can get decent playing minutes.” He mumbled as he began to weigh the pros and cons of joining the top flight team.
“But no!! I’ve promised myself that I won’t run away from challenges. If I don’t get playing minutes for being new then I’ll just have to demonstrate my skills and earn myself a spot in the starting eleven.”
His eyes glowed with determination as he clenched his fist. “Success is earned not granted.”
However while feeling motivated, he completely forgot that he was holding the list with the name of the teams in his hands.
As he clenched his fist tightly, he crushed the list in his hands.
“Ahh!! I completely forgot about the list.” He mumbled as he began to retrieve the list back to normal.
“If I’m gonna join a team then I’m gonna join the best one. Yes I’ve made my decision, I’ll give Eric the name of five clubs that I want to join. And I’m sure he can discuss with the club’s and find out the best one for me. Let’s leave the work of pros to pros.”
Saying such, he circled the name of five clubs from the list and stored the list inside his drawer.
“I’ll have to work more harder now. Since I have enough points to upgrade the system, I should probably upgrade the system as well. That way I can gain more resources from the system and I can even unlock more features of the system. So it’s decided I’ll upgrade the system too.” He mumbled as he began to think of upgrading the system.
**** ****
Early in the morning as he woke up from his sleep, he thought of calling Eric. But then again, he remembered that Eric was no longer in Japan.
Eric had already departed for England after few days from the day of the contract signing.
And since Eric was in England at that moment, there was a time difference of about 9 hours between the two countries.
With Japan being 9 hours ahead of England, calling him that early in the morning meant desturbing Eric’s sleep by calling him at the middle of the night.
And thus he refrained himself from calling Eric early in the morning and decided to call him later in the night.
“What time would it be in England right now? Since we have a 9 hour time difference and it’s 5 AM here, it’s probably only 8 PM over ther right now. But knowing Eric he’s probably asleep at this moment.”
Since Eric started his day early in the morning, he used to sleep before 9 everyday if there wasn’t any work that required his attention.