God Of football

Chapter 987: Won And Dipped.

The next morning came like the whole world had gone through a change, and for some particular fan group, it was just perfect.

A fan posted a picture of the sunrise through their kitchen window with a caption that read: ’How good it feels, waking up as an Arsenal fan and knowing that the dark and gloomy days are over. #Izan d’OR’

It didn’t take long for several gooners who were also just about their day to start assembling beneath the post.

Away from them, though, a different sentiment kept popping up, worded differently but meaning the same thing.

"What do we even classify him as, because I just woke up this morning, realising Izan won a Ballon d’Or before most projected players did.@KylianMbappe, do you have anything to say?" was what a post said.

Teenage prodigy felt outdated now, or almost insulting, and it was a new feeling to many fans to realise that the best player in the world, for the past couple of seasons, has been a 17-year-old boy.

"This must be what our grandfathers had felt when they saw the coming of Pele," a tweet said, and before that could finish its run, the picture Izan had posted the previous day of Miko beside the trophy began making rounds again.

A tweet went viral within minutes, talking about how, " A dog has seen the Ballon d’Or closer than me, and GTA 6 is still not out."

[Mid A/N: Come on, it’s 2026. This joke is dead. Sorry guys, my hands did this.]

Another followed, asking, " Is it too late to transition into a white Samoyed so Izan can adopt me?"

It got to the point of someone starting a fake petition to get Izan to adopt him, and that got a couple of thousand signatures.

Away from all this and in the confines of the Bvlgaru Hotel, Miranda stood by a window of the hotel room in a large t-shirt and joggers, scrolling with a tired expression that suggested she had not slept much, despite the previous night being a night of respite.

A night to rest after all the effort put into making sure her client could solely focus on doing the pitchwork.

"So what do you want to do now?" she asked, glancing up for a moment before looking down again at her phone.

"It’s 3 French TVs, two Spanish outlets and one British breakfast show, but I feel like that could be more by the end of the day. I don’t even know how they expect you to fulfil all those commitments when the season is still in full swing."

"Did they expect the Ballon d’Or to halt it or something?" she fired at the last.

Izan, also seated on the bed a few metres away, glanced up and then shook his head.

"No."

Miranda glanced back at him, one eyebrow lifted and gave him a curious look.

"No, as in no right now, or no as in no at all?"

"No, as in it doesn’t help me," he said simply.

She exhaled through her nose, already anticipating the rest.

"You know how this works. They’ll say you think you’re above it or churn out articles trying to discredit you, though I doubt that will work, but it’s not worth the noise."

He leaned back, resting his palms on the mattress behind him.

"Well, we can just choose to ignore them. They only get louder when you react to their whims."

Miranda studied him for a second, then tilted her head.

"You’re not worried they’ll... I don’t know. Hold it against you? I mean, it is these same people that vote and stuff?"

Izan met her eyes with certainty etched in his eyes.

"In the face of pure domination," he said, "they can’t give it to someone else when the numbers and trophies say otherwise. Not unless they want to kill the award themselves."

That did it, reminding Miranda, if she had forgotten, who her client was.

"Almost forgot for a second," she muttered. "But you’re not wrong."

She tapped the tablet once, closing whatever message she’d been reading and then set it down.

"Fine. No interviews. We’ll leave the interpretation to whoever wants to do one."

He smiled faintly, grateful but unsurprised.

"Oh," she added, almost casually, "Adidas sent word that they sent over the boots for winning the award."

"They’ve been ready," she said. "They just needed last night to actually happen."

He nodded, standing now.

"All the more reason to get back to London."

Miranda allowed herself a small smile at that before turning towards the door.

"I’ll tell the others to get back early."

She turned toward the door, then paused.

"Try not to adopt anyone else today. Dog or otherwise," she said, pointing out to Izan, who laughed briefly as the former stepped out of the room

[You still have pending rewards and achievements], came the system ringing in Izan’s ear just after Miranda was out of the scenery.

"I know," Izan said shortly before rising to his feet and heading towards the bathroom.

And just like the Avatar, when the world wanted to hear from him the most, he vanished.

All most people got from Izan was a picture of him stepping into a car after arriving back in London.

Some even took the initiative, camping at the Colney training complex to see him, but not even his recognisable car came through.

It set a frenzy afterwards as people began wondering where he was, as he wasn’t in training.

Some even took to checking flight trackers after a post suggested he might have gone to Spain for a while, but nothing concrete showed, and nothing official came from the Arsenal end of things.

Then the squad list dropped for Port Vale, and there was still no Izan to be found.

With all the talk, Arsenal went on to win 2–0 without much drama, but even in the post-match talk, it wasn’t about the goals.

It was still about where Izan was.

One fan tweeted, Man won the Ballon d’Or and logged out of football, while another replied, talking about how Izan won the Ballon d’Or and then dipped after winning it all, since that was his mission because no human was scoring those goals he was scoring.

Three days passed again, with Arsenal facing Newcastle in the league, away from home, and the expectant fans, hoping to see Izan, were to be disappointed as the squad list still didn’t have his name on it.

Arsenal, like before, went on to win the game 2-1, but after the game, a chant asking where Izan was could be heard even from outside the stadium.

In his post-match interview, the reporters posed the question the fans had been asking for the past week, but all they got was a smirk from the man who just ignored the question, like everything going on was amusing.