Become A Football Legend

The crowd went wild as the players jogged out of the dug out for their warm-up session. It was 30 minutes before kick off in the home game against SC Freiburg.

Lukas ran onto the pitch behind Larsson in a training kit that covered almost all parts of his body except his face.

"Welcome to the Deutsche Bank Park, everyone. As you can see, it's a freezing night here in Frankfurt, but we will be here, reporting live as 3rd place Eintracht Frankfurt takes on 6th place SC Freiburg. Both contending for a spot in Europe next season, this should be a joy to watch," the ESPN+ commentator said as he watched the players come out from the dug out for their warm-up.

"Eintracht Frankfurt will look to build on their performance from last week. Although with their talisman — Omar Marmoush — set to leave the club soon, Topmöller will have to think about reorganizing the team if they want to keep the same level they've been on this season," the commentator started the night off with some analysis.

Back down at the pitch after a couple set of stretches and muscle-activation movements led by the fitness coach, the players were each doing their thing with the ball — some juggling, some testing the goalkeeper.

Lukas was in the latter group.

He stood just beside Marmoush, Götze, Ekitike, and Knauff as they took turns testing their captain, Kevin Trapp from just outside the penalty arc.

Ekitike struck the ball powerfully and it flew straight towards the bottom left corner of the post. Trapp, however, got down fast and got a hand to it — tipping it away from goal.

"Ooooohhh!" The crowd yelled as they applauded Trapp for his save while Ekitike dramatically put his hands on his head.

Marmoush chose to hit the ball with power, too, going for the mid-right hand corner of the post. Trapp followed it, got a finger to it, but it just pushed past his gloves and hit the net.

"No surprise there, there's a reason he's being linked to one of the best clubs in the world. Let's see what the young and rising star would do," the commentator said as he sat up to watch Lukas's turn. It was just a warm-up routine, but they were curious to see his shooting ability.

Lukas walked towards a ball laying just a couple feet to the left of the penalty arc. He walked just past the ball a bit and stood casually with his left hand on his waist.

After about five seconds spent staring at Trapp, who was hitting his gloves together and staring him down, Lukas did a very short run-up and hit the ball with the inside of right foot.

The shot lacked the raw power the previous two before him had, but it was had something else. It curved through the air like Lukas was guiding it with a controller as it headed for the top right hand of the goal.

Trapp lunged at the ball full stretch — but he wasn't getting there.

Lukas had a huge smile on as Trapp shook his head and turned to dig the ball out of the back of the net.

"Oufff... Well I guess they're letting him take set-pieces for a reason. Oh we're so back! What Marmoush? Let him go!" A man in a huge black coat said as he clapped loudly. Sitting right next to him was the Brandt and Gimenez gang — Javi, Anne, João and Joanna. They all had different versions of the Eintracht Frankfurt jersey with his number and name behind them. They were all smiles as they heard people compliment the player they had all come to support.

Javi squeezed Anne's hand which was stuck inside the side pocket of his coat tightly, while she quietly rested her head on his shoulders as they watched the players who had gone in after the warm-ups come out for the match.

Today again, Lukas was on the bench. Sitting calmly with his bib on as he tapped his foot on the ground to a slow rhythm in his mind. Coach Topmöller had decided to keep him as a sub and introduce him depending on how the game goes.

"Topmöller has decided to keep the same starting lineup in the 3-0 win against St. Pauli last week, they will be looking to build on that. This, however, might be the last game for their highest goal scorer, Omar Marmoush, with his imminent transfer to Manchester City."

"FWEEE." The referee blew his whistle to start the match after the formalities were done.

And from the first whistle, Eintracht Frankfurt smelled blood and were ready to pounce. They saw most of the ball, and created the most chances.

But they just couldn't seem to finish them even though they were getting a big chance virtually every ten minutes.

In the third minute, Marmoush found himself in a position to shoot after dribbling past two Freiburg players, but his shot sailed just wide off the side of the post.

Ten minutes later, Götze received a beautiful pass from Ekitike, and shoots first time. The ball seemed destined for goal, but Noah Atubolu — the Freiburg number one — saved it brilliantly.

Another ten minutes later, a goal-line clearance by a Freiburg defender stopped Ekitike's snapshot from going over the line.

The crowd and the bench were ready to celebrate, but all that came was a resounding "Ohhhh!" from the stadium, and then a round of applause for the home team. Their intentions were clear — they wanted a goal, and it felt like only a matter of time before they got it.

But Freiburg had other plans.

In the 37th minute, Merlin Rohl receives the ball down the right flank, beats Nathaniel Brown, the left back, and plays a simple ground pass into the danger zone.

The ball finds Ritsu Doan who side-footed it into goal with his first touch, catching Trapp off guard.

"GOALLL! Freiburg opens the score sheet. Against the run of play, Freiburg has snatched the lead!"

As he saw the players celebrating, one man was having an inner monologue.

"I'm not gonna leave this team with an L," the man with the number 7 jersey thought as he jogged back to position to facilitate the resumption of the game.

As soon as the game resumed, Eintracht Frankfurt pushed even harder. Omar Marmoush seemed to have hit a whole new gear, finding passes, creating and taking chances — although some flew embarrassingly over the bar — it felt like he was trying to impress his new club.

He succeeded massively.

In the 43rd minute, he sent in a cross from a cornerkick down at the left-hand side.

"Marmoush to take the corner. He whips it in... GOALL!! Eintracht Frankfurt are level! Glancing header from Koch to bring the score to 1 - 1 just before the break. Koch has now scored two headers in the last two matches."

The whistle blew a little after the resumption of the game and the players headed down the tunnel.

The second half started the same way the first half ended — Frankfurt pushing for a goal.

It happened for them in the 65th minute.

Nathaniel Brown received the ball just outside the left hand side of the penalty box. He cut to the left and passed it to Marmoush. He took it first time, but a sliding block from a defender blocked the ball which fell kindly for him again. The Freiburg goalkeeper had already committed to the direction the blocked shot was heading, so Marmoush just slotted it to the opposite side of the post.

"GOALL! And Frankfurt are in the lead — a well-deserved lead. Omar Marmoush with his 15th Bundesliga goal of the season to make it Frankfurt two, Freiburg one."

After conceding the second goal, Freiburg went all out on attack to try and get a goal back — almost every team in this position would take this gamble. Some times it pays off, some times it doesn't.

But the gamble wasn't paying off today.

A/N: Second bonus chapter for the dragon. Today's official chapter will be released in a couple hours. The GT chapter will be released sometime next week... Maybe tomorrow.

Love y'all.

-Writ

P.S: Comment to this paragraph with a rating of the new cover art on a scale of 1 - 10 lemme know if I'm gonna fire my artist. ᕦ⁠(⁠ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ⁠)⁠ᕤ