A pin-drop silence followed right after the answer came out of Higo’s mouth, making the boy aware that all the boys at the table listened to the conversation. Not that he could blame them, as they were secretly hoping to get him into their team.
I mean, who didn’t want an amazing goalkeeper having their back?
However, the answer they got was completely out of nowhere, so they had to make sure they listened correctly here.
"Sorry? Come again?" Kawabe asked, rubbing his ears quite strongly.
"A team from Germany invites me for a trial, so I will try my luck there," Higo mumbled lowly, somehow feeling his ears burned right now. He was so used to bragging in front of Makino and the others, but now, in front of the whole national players whose accolade was bigger than his, this was quite a strange feeling.
Finding silence again, he finally turned around, trying to get any reaction. Much to his amusement, everyone just stared at him dumbfoundedly, some even having their jaws drop like they were a manga character.
"SAY, WHAT?!"
In the end, the collective shouts from the rest of the team snapped the silence here, and the interrogation finally began.
"Hey, hey, are you sure that it is a legit invitation?" Someone asked.
"Yeah, Kumiko-chan and my mother have been handling the situation, and they are sure everything is legit." Higo nodded firmly, causing some people to twitch the corner of their mouth here.
"Damn! You even brag about your relationship right now?! Screw you, Higo!" Naoya cursed indignantly.
"Anyway, which team is that? Can you disclose it to us?" Koki Morita asked, leaning forward eagerly.
"...Don’t spill it outside, okay? It would be embarrassing if things didn’t go smoothly for me." Higo couldn’t help but warn them.
"Sure, sure!"
After taking a deep breath, under everyone’s eager eyes, Higo finally answered in a low voice, "It is Schalke 04."
"... That Schalke from Germany?" Someone whispered quietly.
"The one where Leroy Sane and Manuel Neuer came from?" Another added.
"Yeah, it should be, right?"
As he received more questioning gazes, Higo sighed helplessly before he gave a nod. "Yeah, it is that Schalke 04."
"Fucking hell! This is a big deal!"
"Are you kidding me?! I have never expected that the first one to go abroad would be you!"
"Yeah! I thought it would be someone like Morita or Kawabe, you know? The offensive darlings?!"
Higo couldn’t help but grin as he received so many cheers like this. Hell, even those who knew him before, like Naoya, Kawabe, and Mamoru, were genuinely happy for him, even though the boy could see a hint of jealousy in their eyes.
However, of course, there would be people who would pour the cold water on this kind of happy situation. In this regard, though, it was Koki Morita who suddenly asked with a somber tone, "Are you sure it is a wise decision to leave the country straight after high school like that?"
All heads snapped at him, and some frowned questioningly at the boy.
"No, no, no, don’t get me wrong, I am happy even though a bit jealous of him." Koki Morita raised both hands in surrender, admitting his feelings clearly. "However, haven’t you guys forgotten about Miyaichi-senpai’s story in the past?"
Well, this put a silence on everyone’s mouth, because they all recognized the name pretty clearly. In fact, some of them also started to look at Higo in pity, which made the boy, who didn’t know a thing about who this Miyaichi was, become more alarmed.
"Who is this Miyaichi-senpai?" He couldn’t help but ask.
"He is a legendary football figure from Aichi." It was Ito who answered the question, his tone so heavy like he was about to tell a horror story. "It was around 2010, and Miyaichi-senpai alone carried the whole Chukyo High, a rookie team that had never participated in the national tournament, to get into the semifinal of the tournament. That was the biggest achievement any team from Aichi had ever reached, and even though they didn’t win the tournament, his performance is enough to put him as the best player of the whole thing. Sound familiar?"
Higo was so stunned that his head nodded unconsciously. Indeed, the story was somehow so familiar to him this year. Even though he had never said it out loud, Higo would say that in the most important moment, he carried the whole team to go through the next level in the last winter tournament, exactly like what this Miyaichi had done in the past.
’Speaking of this... I am sure I heard the name before. Is it from Kumiko-chan or something else? I have to look it up again later.’ He put that thought at the back of his mind quietly.
"Later, Miyaichi-senpai got a one-in-a-lifetime trial offer from Professor Arsene Wenger himself! To join Arsenal! And he did it!" Ito slammed the table quite loudly, enough to make Higo’s heart jump a little. "He accepted the trial and got a professional contract with Arsenal! Just to find that it was the beginning of his downfall."
"Yeah, after that, he completely lost his charm, unable to find his best performance again." Koki Morita continued. "Staying four years at Arsenal, he only had one game! One! To show off what he is capable of. Other than that, he spent most of his time getting loaned from one team after another."
"Bolton Wanderers..."
"Wigan Athletic..."
"Feyenoord in Netherland..."
"Twente..."
"And after that, he finally left the team for St. Pauli, a second-division team in Germany, and became a permanent bench warmer for them. A fate so bleak for once the wizard whom everyone admired in the whole country." Koki Morita shook his head in pity. "That is the only case of a high schooler going straight abroad without getting into the local team first. So, what do you think, Higo-kun? Think you are capable enough to get better than that?"
For that, Higo just gulped nervously, not knowing how to answer the question.