God Of football

Chapter 1022: Ask Me Then!

After Izan’s substitution, Spain just managed the game.

They were up 6 goals, but that didn’t mean they had any intention of conceding.

They say back absorbing the Cape Verdian attacks, which was easy to do due to the lack of conviction in the opponent’s attack.

After the clock hit the 90th minute, the final whistle cut through the noise instead of the usual added time because that would be cruel to the Cape Verdians.

”And that is full-time here at the Atlanta Stadium. It’s Spain six, Cape Verde nil. It’s the first-ever World Cup game for the African team, but it is one they will want to forget. A demolition, a statement and a result that is going to reverberate around every camp in this tournament tonight.”

As the commentators went at it, the broadcast cameras panned across the pitch and found Izan almost immediately.

”And there he is. The one at the centre of all of it. Three goals, two assists — no, sorry, three goals and one assist, in his first World Cup appearance. Who else but Izan Hernandez?”

On the pitch, Izan walked toward the match official near the centre circle, said something brief after shaking hands with the main match official and took the matchball from his hands.

After that, he lifted it for all to see before tucking it under his arm and then walking away.

”He’s taken the matchball. And why wouldn’t he? A hat-trick in his first game, and the question you find yourself asking watching him walk off this pitch is, where does he end up by the time this tournament is finished? The record for goals in a single World Cup tournament is thirteen by Just Fontaine in 6 games at the 1958 World Cup. We are only one game in...”

Before the main commentator could finish, his co-commentator cut in.

”Hang on. Something’s happening on the pitch.”

The camera that had zoomed in on Izan pulled back and found four Cape Verde players converging on Izan from different directions, with all four of them having their shirts half-raised or already off.

”And it seems that these four Cape Verdian players want his shirt,” the main commentator said with a slight chuckle.

”I mean, can you blame them?” the co-commentator said.

”They’ve just shared a pitch with the best player in the world with no close second. I would have taken his shorts too if he allowed it,” the co-commentator said, earning a laugh from his partner.

On the pitch, Izan looked at the four of them with a flustered expression.

After a while, he looked at the player nearest to him, the one who’d gotten there first and without hesitation pulled his shirt over his head and handed it across.

Then he looked at the other three.

”As you can see, I am all out of shirts,” he said, smiling slightly.

”But I do have a few more spares in the locker room, so why don’t you have your kit manager come over to mine for it. And I will sign it also.”

All three of them nodded as he’d just told them something that had made the whole evening worth it, regardless of the scoreline.

Izan nodded once after that before turning towards the tunnel, still with his matchball in hand.

Outside the stadium, on and online, the reactions came fast and came from everywhere.

On Spanish Twitter, the posts were arriving faster than anyone could read them.

Someone had already made a graphic of the scoreline with the caption JUST GIVE THEM THE TROPHY NOW in capital letters, and it had been shared forty thousand times before the players had even reached the locker room.

Fan accounts were posting the goals on loop.

Someone’s grandfather in Bilbao, who had watched every World Cup since 1966, had apparently turned to his wife after the sixth goal and said simply that he could die now and had seen enough, which his granddaughter posted a video of and immediately became the most liked video on X/Twitter that evening.

Naturally, the other side of it arrived just as quickly.

There weren’t many, but they were sizable and loud.

It’s just Cape Verde.

They’ve never played a World Cup game before today.

France would’ve done the same.

England would’ve done the same.

Wait until they play a real team.

The argument split neatly and loudly across every platform and showed no signs of resolving itself, which was fine, because these arguments never do, and that was partly the point of them.

Back at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium or Atlanta stadium, the media room filled up quickly, afterall, Luis De La Fuente and his most trusted soldier, Izan, were going to be receiving some questions.

The Spanish coach came in first after a while and sat down.

The air around him was so composed that the journalist, although not rowdy, began to conform to him.

Izan followed a minute behind him, fresh from the shower, hair tied back but still damp at the edges with a few strands falling across his forehead.

He sat down beside De la Fuente and put his hands on the table before glancing at the room and nodding slightly as if to greet them.

The moderator nodded, and after that, the questions started coming in.

The first two went to De la Fuente, and it mainly questioned him about the shape of the performance, the tactical decisions and whether the margin flattered Spain or honestly reflected the gap.

He answered both with the precision of a man who had thought about these things before being asked them, which he had.

Then the third question, still aimed at De la Fuente, came from a journalist near the back.

”The captain. There are players in that squad with fifty, sixty caps. Experienced players, players who’ve been to tournaments before. Why Izan? Why now? Why at eighteen?”

De la Fuente considered it for a second, glanced at Izan and then looked back at the journalist who had asked that question.

”We’ve been running things the same way for a long time,” he said.

”And it was working, up to a point. But then it didn’t anymore. After Spain won the Euros in 2012, the team went on and didn’t even make it from their group in the 2014 World Cup.”

”After that, too, we went out of the 2016 Euros in the round of 16 and out the same round in the 2018 World Cup. After that, we found some success after making it to the semi-final of the Euros a couple of years later, but then in the 2022 World Cup, we went out again, this time to Morocco and once again in the Round of 16.”

”After that tournament, I realised things had to change.”

”And then two years ago, I started trusting the young ones more — giving them responsibility rather than easing them into it — and you saw what happened. We won the Euros.”

”Youngsters do not need to be protected from responsibility. And certainly not when you have a youngster like Izan, if we can even call him that still. So the question wasn’t why give it to him. It was why wouldn’t you.”

The room moved on after that, and soon the questions turned toward Izan.

What were his thoughts on the performance, his hat-trick, and how it felt to play his first World Cup game?

He answered everything briefly and without drama, at least until a journalist in the third row leaned forward.

”There’s been a reaction since the final whistle. Some people are saying Spain’s performance tonight is being overstated. That Cape Verde had never played a World Cup game before today, that they weren’t a real test of where this Spain team actually are. What is your response to that?”

Izan looked at the journalist for a moment.

Then he smiled.

”There are always going to be opinions,” he said.

”That’s just how it is. I’m not going to spend too much energy on them.”

”But look. I saw the reactions online after the game. People saying the group is easy, that Uruguay is the only team in it worth anything, and even then they haven’t been at their best lately.”

”Every team in this tournament qualified. Cape Verde qualified. That’s why they are here. Every team playing in the World Cup has the ability and can back it up. That’s why they are here, but having your first World Cup game against a team like us isn’t an easy thing to do.

The result is what it is, but I’m not going to sit here and say the group is easy because I genuinely don’t think any group at a World Cup is easy. If those people who talk wish to try, why don’t they play against Cape Verde themselves and see if it was easy?”

After that, he brought his hands to his chin while his elbow rested on the table.

”As for meeting a tougher opponent, I can only talk about that when it happens. Ask me then.”

As Izan finished, the journalist went silent for a moment, as they dropped their heads to record every word that he had said, and then some, before the moderator had them move on a while later.