Become A Football Legend
Chapter 44: First Team First Session

Chapter 44: First Team First Session

"Lukas Brandt? The reserve team?" The boy asked as he removed his headphones. "It’s nice to meet you, I’m Hugo Larsson."

Hugo took Lukas’s hand as they exchanged greetings.

"I know... I’ve watched you play a lot."

"Since you play for the reserves, you guys probably used our game footage for tactics, right?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Well, welcome. You can put on your training kit, I’ll wait for you. Let’s head to the training ground together."

"Okay. Thanks."

Lukas moved back to the locker where his training gear was kept and started changing.

* * *

"The pitch feels great," this was Lukas’s first thought when he stepped onto the training pitch and lightly stomped his studs into the tuff.

The difference between this pitch and the one used by the reserve team was immediately obvious.

As Lukas and Larsson stepped on the pitch, a few heads turned to see who it was. Those who saw Lukas, kept looking.

"Is he an academy player? What’s he doing here? He looks so young."

No one spoke, but by looking around, Lukas could guess what was going through their minds.

"Oh my goodness, it’s Super Mario?" Lukas was excited to see the player who made him fall in love with football, he kept the feelings inside, though, as he put on the best pokerface he possibly could.

It was Mario Götze, in the flesh.

He was juggling a ball, now in his 30s, he was way past his prime, but as the saying goes, form is temporary, but class is permanent. It was clear he was a footballer in a very high class.

He held a very special location in Lukas’s heart, though.

"Dino, he’s here."

Coach Zembrod alerted Coach Topmöller who was with all the assistant coaches and training staff to discuss the day’s session.

Coach Topmöller glanced across the pitch, and with a huge smile strolled over to where Lukas was standing.

"Hello, coach," Lukas greeted when Dino got closer.

"Lukas. Welcome. I hope you’re ready?"

"Yes, sir. I promise you won’t be disappointed."

"That’s good. Assistant coach Morgado, over there, will give you the necessary motoring devices you’ll need to wear during training. Grab them from him, and we’ll get started."

"Okay, coach."

Lukas walked over to coach Morgado, a bald man in his early 30s, and greeted him. He was handed a few pieces of equipment to wear both around his arm, and around his back like a vest.

They were several trackers and sensors which the first team used regularly, but the reserve had limited access to.

FWEEEE

Coach Topmöller’s whistle sounded soon after Lukas had finished putting on the devices.

"How are you all feeling today? Any persistent pains? Any little nicks taken during the last match that you’re still feeling? I need to know about them now, please.

We’re doing great in the league right now and we must end the first half of the season strong."

The players listened to the coach, some feeling their legs for any signs of pain, while others stretched their muscles to prepare for training.

"We have a new player training with us today. His name is Lukas Brandt, and I have a feeling he will bench one of you very soon."

"Come on, coach, how good could the kid be?" Robin Koch asked.

"Well, then Rob, you will be in charge of defending him the next we play a training match."

Dino clapped his hands, " Alright boys, we will be having a short session today. I know some of you will be going back to your countries in the coming days, do not get injured."

"Oh yeah, it’s the international break soon. There’re so much of those nowadays," Lukas thought as he listened to coach Topmöller.

"The starters of yesterday’s match will follow coach Zembrod for their recovery session, the rest of you are stuck with me."

The players who started the match against VfB Stuttgart the previous day, including Larsson who was standing with Lukas, moved into a nearby building with assistant coach Zembrod.

The players left outside, about 12 of them including Lukas, started their warm-ups as directed by coach Topmöller.

Similar to a pre-match drill, they started with light jogging and mobility drills.

After the warm-ups, they moved to high intensity fitness drills.

Sprints, shuttle runs, agility ladder drills, and a few acceleration and deceleration drills with resistance belts.

By the end of the fitness drills, a few players were already bent over, hands on their knees as they quietly caught their breath.

Lukas, however, was standing straight up, his heart rate was elevated, but his breathing was normal.

"Even though these are mostly substitute players, I’m glad I have better fitness than a few of them at least. It would be bad if I was the first to get tired," he thought as he wiped off the sweat forming on his forehead.

Coach Dino blew his whistle to signal a new drill. They moved to technical drills.

Some passing and shooting combinations for the midfielders and forwards, ball control under pressure, cone dribbling drills.

This was where Lukas thrived.

The sharp afternoon sun cast long shadows across the training ground, but he was already lost in his own rhythm.

While the others wore looks of mild concentration or fatigue, his eyes were alive — locked in, focused, every movement flowing like a rehearsed dance.

The ball hugged his boots like it belonged there. Every touch was clean, every flick precise.

When the drill demanded speed, he glided through the cones with an ease that seemed almost unfair — feet low, body balanced, changes of direction crisp and deliberate.

When it demanded accuracy, he was deadly. Long range drives buried in the top corner beyond the reach of Kaua Santos — the substitute goal keeper.

Coach Topmöller watched Lukas with an unreadable expression. He had coached a lot of young superstars from his time at Bayern Munich, and immediately Lukas had buried the first shot, he knew he had struck gold.

"Seeing him do it in my training session sure is different from only watching it through a screen," coach Topmöller thought as he watched Lukas dance through the cones in a dribbling drill.

"Coach, have a look at this," assistant coach Morgado, the coach in charge of analysis handed a tablet he was holding to Dino.

Open on the tablet, was the software used to aggregate and analyze all the data collected by the several devices the players had on.

It showed Lukas’s data.

Everything from his GPS data — like distance covered, average and maximum speed — to current heart rate and HRV signals was visible on the tablet screen.

"This is unimaginable for a kid his age," coach Morgado continued, "I haven’t seen anyone this good at this age. We also got his tests results ran by Riederwald last month. He’s growing perfectly, bone density is great, his center of gravity is rising as he gets taller and older, but he adapts to it perfectly so far, at least."

Coach Topmöller just listened as he swiped through the data in front of him occasionally nodding his head in approval when he saw a metric that impressed him.

"Just to be safe, we should schedule a full medical for him before we make any major decisions. But there’s no doubt about giving him a pro contract. We have players on the roster older and worse than him."

"Alright, I will talk to Dr. Plachel," Morgado replied as he walked off the pitch.

After the training, the players walked into the same room the starters used earlier for their recovery session

The players were split into a few groups as they walked: the oldest groups, the ones in their mid to late 20s, and the youngest groups.

Lukas walked towards the building with a few last group on the squad like Can Uzun, Oscar Hojlund, while Larsson introduced them to each other.

"Lukas! A moment," coach Topmöller called for Lukas causing him to break away from the group.

"Nice work today."

"Thank you, coach."

"I heard some news about interest from other clubs. I want to assure you that if you keep playing like this, you’ll definitely get minutes with the first team."

"I won’t let you down, coach. And my heart has always been in Frankfurt."

"That’s great to hear. We definitely won’t mistreat you here. I just got off the phone with Hardung, for the contract negotiations later, I made sure to let him know you are a great addition to the team. So tell Marco to get you a nice salary."

"Hahaha thank you, coach."

"No problem. I have informed coach Morgado to schedule a medical for you, we need more data than those provided by Riederwald. It’ll be sometime this week, so get ready. We’ll also be training regularly during this international break, so I’ll be expecting you. At least for the afternoon sessions."

"I’ll definitely be here, coach."

He exchanged his final greetings with the coach as he jogged to the recovery room where all the players had disappeared into.

* * *

"Okay let’s talk numbers."

A/N: Today’s Chapter. 23rd July, 2025.

It was a beautiful day.

He’s gonna have his debut match somewhere before ch 50. Honestly idk how good I can describe an actual match. I’ll try my best, though, and I’ll learn as I go.

Thanks for the Power Stones and GTs. Please send as much as you can.

Love you all.

-Writ.