Rise of a Football God

(Premier league:)

(West Ham – Fulham)

(Date: 14th April, 2024)

Located in the south of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is London Stadium, another of the iconic stadiums in England. The London Stadium's history was that it was built to host the London 2012 Olympics.

And now, it was the home stadium of one of the elite teams in the English premier competition, West Ham United.

The 62,000-capacity stadium was one of the biggest in all of England, and this was the venue for Fulham's next challenge in the premier league.

It was an imposing and incredibly tough stadium to get a good result from.

After extending their winless run in the premier league by the stalemate against Newcastle United, Coach Marco Silva finally came under pressure by the media and the fans.

They seemingly forgot that he already led this team to win its first trophy in years, rather, all they focused on was the recent defeats and draws.

If Fulham extended the winless run by either losing or drawing to West Ham the next game, threads of #MarcoSilvaOut popping out on social media may not be too surprising.

This was the nature of football. You had to perform, and keep performing, that was the only way to stay in the good favors of the fans.

Once you start performing badly, you lose faith with the fans.

After the recent run of form, this was the situation that now plagued Coach Marco Silva, making their next game even more important.

The buildup to the West Ham game was intense.

After the Newcastle game on the 6th, instead of the short 3-day break that separated the Nothingham Forest and the Newcastle game, this time, the Fulham players had a good 7 days to prepare for their next game.

The players used this time judiciously.

Playing 32 games in a 38-game season was no easy feat. The players were exhausted, but with the 7-day rest, they had enough time to rest, reset, and refocus on their ambitions for the rest of the season.

And again, during this period of reset, Sam stayed diligent.

When Sam was younger, in the era of mobile games, there was a mobile game he once played called need for speed. In that game of racing cars like asphalt, the main emphasis was speed, speed above everything else.

You have a fast car, you win.

You have a slow car, you lose.

You have a slow car and you want to win, you either upgrade your car or you save money to purchase a faster car.

At this moment, in the build-up to the West ham game after the draw at home against Newcastle United, only one thing rang in Sam's head that served as extra motivation for him, the need to win!

Fulham FC could not afford to lose another game, nor could they afford to draw the game; the only acceptable result for the West Ham game was a win.

Forget about the collective, personally, Sam did not want to lose another game. He could not afford it; after all, his system already struck again.

2 days earlier in the build-up to the game, he got a new system notification.

~----~

[You have received a new system mission: Win!]

[Mission Description: Fulham FC is going through a rough patch of form, a winless streak, this is not supposed to be in the resume of a player aspiring to become the next Football God!]

[Mission Objective: Win!]

[Mission Reward: Form Boost!]

>Form Boost: This is a system boost that randomly boosts 3 of your main attributes by +3 stat points for one game<

…

[Penalty for mission failure: -5 decrease to one of your attributes!]

~----~

It was a very simple mission, with a very simple explanation.

In essence, the system was just telling him; win or suffer the consequences!

The system mission left Sam thinking. 'This unrelenting need for me to win by the system, is it truly just to make me improve? Why do I feel like the system gets something from me becoming a better footballer?'

'Sometimes, it's demands are not just for me, it seems a bit more personal'.

The rational him wanted to prod more about this but Sam didn't care too much about it. 'Who cares? It wants me to win, I want to win, that's all that matters!'

Instead of looking at it as punishment by his system, Sam rather looked at it as even more motivation.

In the 7 days leading up to the game against West Ham in the London Stadium, Sam trained like hell, giving about 150% every training session!

It got so intense his manager had to tell him to calm down a few times.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Sam's obsession with winning felt overbearing in the build-up to this game. Even as it scared his coach a bit, Marco Silva was also happy because this mentality of his star player seeped into the rest of his team.

Watching the young newcomer who already became a star do so much, putting so much effort even in his fame, trying to impress every time, the other Fulham players could not help but be impressed.

And with being impressed, they also felt their bloods boil hot.

'This guy…'

'I won't let a newcomer steal all of our shine!'

'I won't let his monopoly over coming first every training session stand anymore!'

'I want to challenge him!'

'Damn! I don't believe I'm less talented than he is!'

'Hehe! Sam, just watch, I'll prove to you in training!'

Not all the Fulham players thought like this but with the majority thinking like this, the Fulham squad as a whole was fired up as they trained like a beast.

In those 7 days, if Fulham FC was a meek Wolf before that was injured after the string of losses and draws, Coach Marco Silva watched as his team transmogrified from a Wolf to a Lion, and then to an angry Dragon.

Fulham FC was angry!

Fulham FC wanted to win!

And then, in the blink of an eye, it was D-day.

The Fulham team traveled to the London Stadium.