After opening the scoresheet for his team, Hiro ran towards the sidelines to celebrate his goal infront of Kota Yui, the guy who had gaslighted other players against him.
Just as he reached the sidelines, he lifted his right hand towards his ear and curled his fingers around his ear. He then pointed his ear towards him as if he was gesturing him to repeat the words from before.
After that brilliant goal from Hiro, Kota Yui who was already fuming on the pitch got even more agitated by his gesture. And if not for manager Nozomi standing beside him, he would have literally burst onto the scene once again.
However even after scoring the only goal for his team in the first half, not many of his teammates seemed happy about his goal. The only people that were smiling on the pitch were manager Nozomi, Hiro and surprisingly the opposing goalkeeper Shun Yabuzoe.
15 year old Shun who was already set on the path to promotion to U-18 team next year was smiling despite conceding the goal against Hiro.
“I can see that you’re meant to be a star. This wanna be pro’s can ostracize you as much as they want. But you’ll still shine no matter what. With you may be we can even lift the trophy of premier league in few years.” Shun Yabuzoe mumbled with a smile on his face while walking towards the ball.
The premier league which shun was mentioning about was Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-18 Football Premier League. The tournament for the U-15 and U-18 team were held separately.
The Prince Takamado Cup, since 2018 was divided into two age restricted tournaments, being them the “Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-18 Football League” and “Prince Takamado Trophy JFA U-15 Japan Football Championship”.
While the U-15 tournament was held in a single tournament format with no promotion and relegation, the U-18 league on the other hand was divided into three league with Premier League being the highest league followed by Prince league in the second and Prefectural league in the third.
In the U-18 Premier League 24 teams were split into two groups with 12 teams in each, which are called Premier League East and Premier League West with each teams geographical positions being the determining factor to determine whether the club should be placed in the East group or on the West group.
After competing among themselves in a league format, the winner of those two groups would face each other in one-legged final in a neutral venue to determine the ultimate winner of the Premier League.
Similarly the bottom two team that is the 11th and 12th team from each group would automatically get relegated to Prince league.
In U-15 category several middle school teams and club teams would compete with each other in qualification round to qualify for the final tournament in which only 32 teams were allowed to participate. And those 32 teams would again compete among themselves in a knockout format to determine the ultimate champion of the tournament.
**** ****
With Hiro scoring the only goal for his team, the first half of the match ended with a score of 3:1.
Since the duration of the match was of only one hour, they were given a 5 minutes break before the start of the second half.
And as the reserve teams returned to the sidelines to hydrate themselves, manager Nozomi walked towards the team.
“I know what you guys are trying to do. Since he’s a new player, you guys are probably trying to ostracize him. You guys are deliberately avoiding to give him the pass, right?” Nozomi questioned while coldly staring at the faces of the players who were avoiding Hiro in the first half.
Almost everybody avoided locking eyes with Nozomi and kept their head down.
“But remember we’re a team. And our fortress will only be complete when all our bricks are brought together. So in next half of the match if I find any of you intentionally avoiding any of your teammates, I’ll directly send you home. I don’t need players who can’t play as a team.” Nozomi burst out and warned everybody to play as a team. And after making his intentions clear, he left their side and walked towards the starting team.
Even after hearing his warnings, some players still continued to avoid him. However some players came up to him and began to introduce themselves as well. ．
“I’m Shunta Tanaka. Sorry for showing you cold shoulders back then.” A guy about his height with a lanky body and chicken legs introduced himself. Fair-skinned, black eyes and short black hair, he was the right back of his team.
“I’m Yuya Asano. The reserve left winger of U-15 team. I’m also sorry for showing you cold shoulders previously.” Another guy who was about 2 or 3 inches shorter than him introduced himself. Tanned skin, short brown wavy hair and sharp brown eyes, he was the left winger of the reserve team.
Just as the two of them introduced themself, Hiro who was about to pour water in his mouth spat out the water and spoke in a cheerful voice;
“Nice to meet you, you two. Even though I’ve already introduced myself, let me introduce myself once again. I’m Takahashi hiro. I’m 12 years old right now. And I play as an attacking midfielder on paper.”
“Nice to meet you too.” Both of them replied in a unison and all three of them burst out into laughter.
“Did you see him score that unbelievable goal?”
“Yeah that goal was absolutely ridiculous. If that was in an official match, he would have easily won the best goal of the tournament.”
The players who were standing at a certain distance away from him started to gossip about his goal.
Aside from Shunta and Yuya, other continued to avoid him. However despite their unwillingness to approach him, he could hear them gossiping about his goal.
“I’m sure they want to approach you like we do. But they’re probably afraid of Kota.” Shunta mumbled after hearing their gossips about Hiro’s goal.
“Yeah! Since Kota Yui has a talented older brother who plays for the U-18 team, they’re afraid of getting on his bad side.” Yuya mumbled while nodding his head.
Listening to Shunta and Yuya’s statement, he casted his glance towards Kota Yui. He was once again gaslighting other players in the team.
He continued to stare at him. And after the resting period ended, Kota Yui walked towards the reserve seat and sat down grumpily while contorting his face.
Seeing his grumpy face, he revealed an amusing smile on his face.