Football System: Classic Number 10
Episode 1: Misadventures That Are Also Luck

The 2026 World Cup was the day I first fell in love with football. I was so enamored with the style of English football at the time, even though they failed to make it to the final after losing to Brazil 3-1, but the style of play was so memorable for me.

Moreover, a player with the number 10 back. He was the one who really interested me in the sport that was played with 11 people.

The player is really good at processing the round ball at his feet, his feet have a magical touch every time he touches the ball with his feet, his bright blue eyes always keep an eye on the whole field while dribbling. In a way, England are very lucky to have that player, a player who made me fall in love with him. His name is Jordan Ward Prowse.

I went straight, browsing through everything about the player on the internet, and in the end I knew that the player was the captain of the team that played in the English premier league, Southampton FC.

If asked who is the greatest player in the world, or who is the most favorite player. My friends will answer more names Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski or Erling Haaland who became the best player in the world in 2024.

But for me no, I will loudly mention the name Ward Prowse even though there will be many people who laugh at me. They say I don't understand football, they are fixated on how many goals are scored in a season, they forget the services of midfielders who control the game and create space for the forwards up front. If I had seen how great Andrea Pirlo, Ji-Sung Park or Juninho would have been, I would have chosen them as the best players in the world.

That's why I'm being ostracized by my friends, just because of differences of opinion about how football I was considered careless by them so I was never invited to discuss football or play football during sports hours or play outside school.

I was often bullied by my friends and in the end the thing that saved me was a place full of books and always empty of visitors, the library. In there I read a lot about football history, biographies of legendary players, or even trying to concoct a strategy even though I knew it was still ambiguous and disheveled.

Even though I like the ball, I still have never played ball until now. My first experience playing football was in the 3rd grade of Elementary School and arguably my game was so ruined and that's why up to now I don't have the confidence to play football, because I know I'm not talented in that sport. Maybe not only in football, in other sports as well I don't seem to be much different because I can often score low in sports lessons.

In theory I still understand and even master a little, but when the practice is destroyed.

As of today, on the day of graduation SMP. I could only sit on a long bench next to the field, watching my classmates play ball with other classes as a sign of their last game at this Junior High School.

My class was quite superior even from the start of the game, why what? In our class, there was one child who seemed to be blessed with strong legs as well as a large body. His name is Yoga Hilmawan. He was the mainstay attacker of my school team, even in the school-level match between the City of Banjarmasin, he achieved the top score by scoring 12 goals.

As an attacker, Yoga is really quite ideal. His strong legs produce a hard but controlled kick, he also has a large body that can be a weapon in a duel with an opposing defender, and of course he has a deadly attacking instinct. His footballing skills are also good, he really is like his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, because he hopes to be that kind of player.

And now, the midfielders gave a good breakthrough pass to Yoga. Yoga immediately ran after the ball, he was blocked by two opposing defenders but Yoga easily passed both and kicked the ball strongly towards the top corner of the goal. And what happened was of course the ball came in and my class was 4-1 up at the moment.

The other class had no hope anymore, although this was just a fun match but I could see the frustration from their eyes, and in the end I also went from there because the match was over with a goal from Yoga earlier.

But not far away I went, Yoga came to me. He smiled at me, but I knew that smile was not a good thing.

"Rizaldi!" He said as he continued to maintain that very disturbing smile of his.

"You got 10 grand? I'm thirsty please buy some ice water in the shop!"

Short and clear, the point is he wants to ask for my money. You think he'll return it tomorrow? No, Yoga will forget the events of today as if nothing happened.

Since my money was just enough to pay for the bus, I nervously rejected it. "My money's up, I can only pay for a bus to get back to Yoga!"

But Yoga was not happy to hear it, instead he considered myself to have begun to dare to refute it. Yoga immediately hit me in the stomach until I fell down, he violently took the rest of my money in the pocket of school clothes that I would later use to pay for the bus.

"What's this? Just five thousand silver!" Yoga was upset after taking the rest of my money, and then because he was upset he kicked my helpless face and he just left it, like a wounded dog.

Ahhh, spare a lifetime. This is how I am, a hickey who doesn't even dare to fight against people who oppress me alone, let alone fight for others. I could only lie down while looking at the afternoon sun and it was just as soon as I realized that it was getting late and I had to be in the store quickly.

I tried to get up but the pain was not able to lie to me, when I woke up it felt all my body crumpled even though the pain was only my stomach and face.

I have to hurry to the store where I work side by side, otherwise the shop owner's son will scold me all out until my ears become red.

I also ran all the way, still with pain in the cheek area and my stomach after being hit by Yoga Hilmawan earlier. Since I was not an athletic child, I could only hold on for a little while and my head started to get dizzy from being out of breath.

My workplace store is still quite far from here, but I still have to walk even though my head starts to get dizzy and the view starts to twitch. I took out the phone, I tried to read the news ball in the online media to eliminate the discomfort in my head and quite effect.

But because of the preoccupation of reading the football news, I did not realize that my steps began to shudder and gradually widened. And in the end, I hit an electric pole without me noticing it at all, I even forgot that there was an electric pole there.

Due to hitting the power pole, my head got dizzy. Now my vision is not only as cloudy as seeing birds dancing, it is even now starting to blacken. My head was throbbing like it was about to explode, and the feeling lasted for a few minutes until I heard a voice inside my head, like someone was talking to me.

[Football System Successfully Activated!]

["The entry to the Football Academy has been successfully accepted!"]

That's how I heard it and I don't know what it means.