Rise of a Football God

The final of Euro 2024 was played on 14th July.

2 days later, Sam finally left Nigeria, going to Fulham to officially start his preparations for the new 2024/2025 premier league season.

After arriving in Fulham and spending a few days with him, Kayla finally bid farewell to him as she returned to Netherlands to meet her family.

As for him, he threw himself into the joy of football.

Watching Spain's journey through Euro 2024 lit up something akin to a fire in his heart. Watching the young Spanish team anchored by Rodri go all the way, winning the Euros in such exciting fashion, he felt motivated.

Watching Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams' performances lit up a fire in his heart. 'Nothing is impossible'.

From the very beginning of the 2024 Euros, the heavy favorites to win the trophy were England, France, and Germany.

From the beginning, Spain was never really a serious contender.

Afterall, a nation having a 16-year old as it's starting right winger, could such a nation really be considered a true contender to win the trophy?

Well, at the end of the tournament, the result spoke for itself.

Spain didn't lose a single game of Euro 2024. Simply believing in their own strengths, Spain played against every opponent, fearlessly executing their game plan to the finest details and it paid off at the end of the tournament.

'If Spain can do it, I can'.

'If Lamine Yamal can do it, I can'.

In the days that followed after arriving back in England, Sam forgot about everything else in the world, including Kayla, including his little vacation, literally everything as the only thing dominating his head became football.

Jogging through the streets of Fulham, completing daily system quests, and driving to Craven Cottage every day to engage in individual training, Sam already started working hard to prepare for the new season.

And knowing that football was not an individual sport, he did well to take pictures and videos every day, sending to his teammates in their official WhatsApp group chat even as he kept on riling them up with his provocative captions.

(It's a new day, are you guys still sleeping? Unacceptable! A new season is starting in less than a month, let's act like people aspiring to win the league!)

(You think we can't? Well, ask Spain about it.)

(And let me let you in on a secret now. Most of the top players of our biggest competitors in the league all went to Euro 2024. While we had a nice vacation, recovering from last season's schedule, they never had the same luxury.)

(We are well rested than them and do you know what this means? It means that after Euro 2024, while the late vacation of their players would start as they try to catch up on some much-needed rest, we get to start preparing ahead of them for the new season.)

(This is an opportunity to catch them off-guard. They'll never see it coming, let's make a statement performance to the rest of the premier league come 16th of August!)

Sometimes, that was all that was needed to motivate mature grown men who kicked a ball around as a profession and received large sums of money every week as their salary.

Shortly after Sam started sending these provocative messages, the second player of Fulham finally cut his holiday short, returning to Fulham.

The player joined Sam in individual training.

From the second, it quickly jumped to the fifth as Fulham players started preparing for the new season ahead of time while most other clubs were still in a state of stasis, recovering from last season and Euro 2024's stress.

The fixtures for the 2024/2025 premier league season was already decided. Fulham's first game of the season would commence on 16th August and it was against one of the biggest giants of English football, Manchester United.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Playing against Manchester United in the opening game of the season was a test of nerves to see if Fulham's form from last season extended into this season.

But in a way, it was a test that they wanted badly.

Sam motivating them was for a reason, mentality was just as important as physicality and skill in football.

With the right mentality, the expression of skill becomes effortless.

Roberto Baggio was one of the greatest Italian players of all time, but there was a blemish to his name, a legendary World Cup run that became tragic at its end. It was impossible to get to the highest level of the game and stay there without the right mentality.

Roberto Baggio was one of the strongest players in history mentally, but sometimes, even the best mental defenses were put to the sword by the stern atmosphere of some matches.

The atmosphere of a FIFA World Cup final was unmatched in football, and it was even more unforgiving when it was a penalty shootout.

After putting in impressive display after impressive display, dragging Italy all the way to the FIFA World Cup final in a legendary run, Roberto Baggio lost it all when he needed it the most in the high-stake moment as he skied his crucial penalty in the shootout.

On that night, Italy lost and Roberto Baggio was haunted by it for life.

The great Italian was not the only great player whose mentality failed when needed the most though. Even one of the G.O.A.Ts himself, Lionel Messi fell victim to it with his national team twice in 2014 and 2016.

Then, Messi was extremely prosperous with his club side, FC Barcelona but glory with his country always eluded him.

In 2014, Argentina finally went all the way, going to the FIFA World Cup final against Germany which they lost agonizingly to the Germans 1-0.

Messi may have won the golden ball of the world cup, but missing out on the trophy was far more painful, overshadowing whatever joy was attributed to winning the golden ball award.

In that game, Lionel Messi tried his best, playing a good game but it could not be disputed that the aura of the occasion got to him a bit.

Vintage Messi didn't show up in the 2014 FIFA World Cup final.

This was the great hurdle of football, the ability to show skill in the biggest stages; it was hard even for the best players to ever kick a ball.

Again, in 2016, Lionel Messi faced the same hurdle and this time, it was another final, the 2016 Copa America final against Chile.

Despite playing another good game, dragging his team again all the way to the final like in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, when Lionel Messi stepped up to take his penalty, the indomitable Lionel Messi became vulnerable, skying his shot just like Roberto Baggio did decades ago.

Your journey continues at empire

Well, it was safe to say that the outcome of that game haunted the Argentine genius as he even retired from his national team, a decision he later changed his mind on.

In recent years, Messi already won it all with Argentina but before the recent success, even the mercurial Argentine suffered in the big moments.

Sam did not want to suffer in the big moments with his teammates, this was why he pushed them so hard with his mamba mentality.

'There's nothing effort can't do'.

'With enough effort, even the worst of atmospheres can be tamed to play your best game'.

'For the new season, Manchester United is our first hurdle'.

'If we're to honestly stand a chance of doing the impossible and winning the league, we need to start with Manchester United!'

Honestly, Fulham winning the premier league was unrealistic but Sam had something to lean on. 'Nobody expected Leicester to win the league in 2016, but damn expectations, they did it'.

'We can do it too!'

Sam trained like he was possessed; he motivated his teammates like he was the team's captain. It got so much at times it started feeling rude but his teammates were not offended, they were already used to being around their extremely competitive teammate.

And then, news started dropping in Fulham.

Fulham FC's transfer board became active.

On the 1st of July, Tosin Adarabioyo, the Fulham center back became the first in a list of departures as Chelsea snapped up the energetic defender.

On the 6th of July, Bobby De Cordova-Reid also completed a free transfer to Leicester City. And most agonizingly, on the 11th of July, after speculations for months, Joao Palhinha finally completed his dream move to Bayern Munich.

Bayern Munich shelled out 51 million Euros for the defensive midfielder.

Another big name to leave Fulham was Luke Harris on 4th of August.

It was not all departures for Fulham though. On the other end of the transfer market, Fulham also engaged in a bit of activity on the market.

On 26th July, Fulham snapped up Ryan Sessegnon on a free transfer from Tottenham. But the truly big news came on 2nd August when Fulham splurged 31.8 million Euros on a prominent player of the premier league.

After seasons of playing a peripheral role in the title-charging Arsenal side of recent seasons, Emile Smith Rowe, the Arsenal wonderkid finally decided to go for a new challenge and he chose Fulham.

To excited Fulham fans, it was the signing of the season.

To Sam, it was the best gift to bolster his ambitions for the new season.

When Emile Smith Rowe was signed, Sam was one of the very first Fulham players to actively contact the player, trying to make friends with him and make him comfortable in the Fulham squad.

And then, finally, it was time.

It was time for pre-season friendlies and Fulham's first opponent was Benfica in away ground.

(Friendly:)

(Benfica – Fulham)

(Date: 2nd August, 2024)