Rise of a Football God

'There's still time to make my mark'.

FWEEEE!

Immediately after the referee's whistle went off, restarting the game, Sam used a familiar mantra to calm his nerves as he jogged about the pitch.

For this game, he replaced Pereira as the attacking midfielder of the team while Alex Iwobi had more of a defensive midfield role.

As soon as the game restarted, with fresh legs, Fulham FC increased their intensity, dominating possession even more than before.

Entering this game, Sam was determined to do just one thing, make his mark but he didn't rush about it.

A season and a half of playing in the NPFL for Enyimba FC already taught Sam a lot of things, and one of these things was to not be rash.

He still had a vivid recollection of his first game for Enyimba FC where due to his overenthusiasm to make his mark, he cost his team a goal. Though he made amends later in the game, that moment haunted him for a long time.

This was why for the first few minutes after entering the pitch, Sam seemed to turn into Xavi Hernandez reincarnated.

Just like the Barcelona legend, for 10 minutes, he played tidy and effective football, boasting incredible stats of a hundred percent pass completion rate.

With his tidy passes, setting up his teammates to take the risk, Sam helped Fulham FC dominate the possession even more for the final minutes of this game, thoroughly killing the Rotherham momentum.

After 10 minutes on the pitch though, with only 5 minutes remaining till the 90th minute, Sam finally decided to be adventurous a bit.

Receiving the ball in the middle of the pitch, just like before, the desperate Rotherham players expected him to pass sideways to the nearest teammate as they pressed aggressively, blocking his passing lanes while rushing towards him.

They expected to intimidate him with their aggressive press but Sam was not impressed. At that moment, he decided to switch it up.

'Let's leave a moment for the fans to remember'.

Bam!

Flicking the ball with the tip of his boot, he raised it above the first Rotherham player's outstretched leg, easily skipping past the first challenge.

The second challenge came from the right.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

With his spatial awareness, Sam knew that this was the closest player to his position. Feeling mischievous, he decided to take more risk.

As the player charged in, he took a heavy step, staggering slightly as this player was destabilized by it, reacting by staggering backward unsteadily.

When the Rotherham player realized that it was a feint, he became even more aggressive, charging forward again and that was when Sam did him dirty.

Shifting the ball with the outside of his boot, Sam took the ball closer to the Rotherham player and just as this player stretched his leg out to steal the ball, Sam smoothly switched from the outside of his boot to the inside, cutting the ball back.

He deleted the Rotherham player with the elastico dribble. Enjoy new stories from empire

It was executed so silkily that it almost seemed like a snake's bite, and the aftermath was the Rotherham player collapsing to the field on his butt.

"Oh my!" The commentator exclaimed, laughing. "The new guy is feeling cheeky! What a move!"

"And oh…, he's played a pass, what a pass!"

"Jimenez is one on one with the goalkeeper!"

Immediately after skipping past the 2 challenges in the middle of the pitch, space opened up in the Rotherham formation. That was when Sam spotted Jimenez, the striker who was subbed into the game alongside him and Alex Iwobi make a run.

He did not hesitate, playing an inch-perfect defense splitting pass.

Raul Jimenez charged past the defenders, calmly controlling the ball before shooting it at goal with his second touch.

The Rotherham goalkeeper who was already charging towards him made his body big and unfortunately for Jimenez, the ball hit the goalkeeper's leg, rebounding back into the 18-yard box as players scrambled for it.

In the end, one of the Rotherham players got there first but due to the urgency, he executed a flawed clearance of the ball, shooting it high into the air instead of clearing it upfield.

The ball descended in the midfield where Alex Iwobi lurked.

A Rotherham player tried to win the aerial duel from the Nigerian international but outmuscling the opposition player, Alex Iwobi calmly won the ball before taking a look up the field, spotting a few options.

There were others in better positions but at this moment, Alex ignored all of them before threading a pass to Sam who just entered the 18-yard box.

A Rotherham player slid on the pitch, trying to intercept the ball but it just slipped past his outstretched leg.

The ball was an inch perfect pass in Sam's running path.

Sam took the ball in his strides, pushing it forward slightly and setting himself up before unleashing a whipped ground ball towards goal.

The Rotherham goalkeeper was rooted to the spot, only watching as the ball rolled through the ground with speed towards the bottom left corner.

He watched the ball all the way till it nestled into his net.

"Goalllll…!" Sam pumped a fist in celebration before turning, pointing at Alex Iwobi as he jogged towards the Nigerian international.

Alex Iwobi turned around, letting Sam jump on his back to celebrate.

"What a goal!" The commentator screamed.

"What a debut for the young Nigerian player".

"He started the move, it didn't pan out, and yet somehow, he still ended it!"

"What a debut performance!"

"It's a dream debut for him".

In the 86th minute of the game, Fulham FC scored the 2nd goal of the game through Sam, dooming Rotherham to a damning loss.

After that goal, the Rotherham momentum truly dissipated completely as Fulham FC fully dominated the rest of the game, coming close to scoring a few more times mostly through Jimenez.

Fulham FC did not get the 3rd goal though.

After additional minutes by the referee, the game finally game to an end.

Fulham FC won 2-0.

[Author's NOTE: Congratulations to me and us on 100 chapters! Wow!]