It was still three days before the game started; however, a big commotion happened in the tournament. It wasn’t just big, but a massive one. Even the biggest sports media in the world like Marca or The Suns reported it as some sort of a miracle.
The cause? A giant boy from Norway named Erling Braut Haaland.
No one really knew the boy’s name before. After all, in the first two games he played, he didn’t really do well, unable to score even once against Uruguay and New Zealand. Hell, his team, Norway, was even eliminated from the tournament, losing all of the first two games there.
However, as if not wanting to leave the tournament empty-handed, he and his team went crazy in their last game. Playing against Honduras, they never showed mercy even for a single second. In the end, they managed to destroy—yeah, DESTROY—Honduras with a big score of 12-0, with Erling Haaland himself scoring NINE out of all the goals there.
Yeah, NINE! In a single game!
This was basically a record in any World Cup for any age category, as no one had ever scored that many before in this stage. This created a massive earthquake in the football world that even Team Japan, which had nothing to do with him, couldn’t help but talk about here.
"What the fuck is going on?! Nine goals?! Is he on drugs or something here?" Kawabe asked with his eyes widened in shock, his hands crushing the edge of the newspaper he read.
"Don’t crush the newspaper, Kawabe; the others also want to read," Ito grumbled while also glaring at the boy.
In return, though, the boy just sneered lightly. "Don’t think I cannot see through your mind, Cap. You are concerned about this as well, right? Probably starting to simulate how you would deal with this Haaland if you met them in a real game? You might be good at hiding your competitiveness, but I have a better sight here."
Ito tensed for a moment; the coffee in his cup even showed some ripples there. However, before he could answer, his friend, Sugawara, interrupted, "Why would you worry about a player who is eliminated already? He could score 100 goals in a single game, but it still couldn’t save his team, you know?!"
Well, indeed, this was the right assessment. Even with nine goals, even when Norway won twelve goals to nil, they still failed to advance to the next round. Oh, they were still amazing, getting to third place after winning only one game. Not only that, but they also had the best goal difference among the other teams that were in third place.
However, their fatal flaw was that they lost the first two games. Out of six teams that were in the same position as them, the four best ones that were chosen to advance further had four points, coming from one win and one draw. Their win, no matter how big it was, still failed to catapult them to the next round.
"Oh, well... Indeed, you are right." Ito nodded solemnly. "Still, I have a feeling that he will be a huge player in the future. Which team does he play for, sorry?"
"RB Salzburg in Austria. He got recruited last January." Naoya, who was checking his phone, couldn’t help but chime in. However, his pupil widened in shock a second later as he read another piece of news. "Holy fuck! The big teams move so quickly! Manchester United’s head coach, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, is starting to ask for his price, while Borussia Dortmund also tries to get closer to him personally! Damn, they don’t even wait!"
"Wait, WHAT?!"
"Holy fuck! Let me see it!"
The boy’s exclamation was enough to get him surrounded by the others in a second. True enough, the news on his phone was big and bold, enough to let everyone else read the news properly.
Solskjaer Puts Pressure on Management to Sign a Teenage Sensation!
Borussia Dortmund’s Chief Scout Markus Pilawa is in Contact with Norway’s Talent Erling Haaland!
Both pieces of news came from Twitter. The first one was from Manchester United’s fans page, which was rumored to have their people workingin the team, while the other was from BILD, probably the biggest newspaper in Germany. That meant the credibility was quite high here that the boy had been eyed by the big teams already.
"Fuck! Just for one game?! This is ridiculous!" Kawabe blinked his eyes in shock and jealousy.
"Well, he scored nine goals in one game. When have you ever heard someone do that at a pro level, let alone in the World Cup?" Ito smiled wryly. His instinct that the boy would be big in the future seemed to be proven right too quickly for him to even process what was going on here.
The rest of the players here had a similar reaction. First was shock, because everything was moving too fast that no one could see this coming, and the second was jealousy. Yeah, jealous. After all, this was still the group stage, and before the last game, no one really knew about this Erling Haaland.
Well... At least, no one in Team Japan.
However, somehow, just in one night, he took the tournament by storm, forcing all the spotlight to fall on him directly. Not only that, now, all the scouts would have their eyes on him, and they would be less interested in the other teams here.
The boy managed to flip the table, from not qualifying to the knockout stage, to make all the important people forget about the whole tournament and just put their focus on him. This attack was definitely too great that even Team Japan, which had nothing to do with that, didn’t really know what to do here.
"Okay, enough of this!" Kageyama-sensei’s voice suddenly echoed throughout the room, enough to make the players jump in fright. The man glared ferociously, saying, "What the hell are you worrying about?! This is not something you should think of! First, think about the next game! We still have a fight to do, so forget about that messy thing and start putting your focus on South Korea!"