Rise of a Football God

The 2024/2025 football season finally came to an end.

After an exciting campaign across the top 5 European leagues, the season finally came to an end, finalizing the winners of each domestic league and the winner of the elite European competitions.

(English Premier League:)

(Winner: Fulham FC)

…

(Spanish La liga:)

(Winner: FC Barcelona)

…

(Italian Seria A:)

(Winner: Atalanta)

…

(German Bundesliga:)

(Winner: Bayern Munich)

…

(French Ligue 1:)

(Winner: PSG)

…

(UEFA Champions League:)

(Winner: Liverpool FC)

For all the major 5 European leagues in the world, 3 of the winners were regular faces while 2 of them were underdogs that rose up, stealing the trophy right from under the nose of the supposed favorites.

Paris Saint Germain of France were regular winners of the French Ligue 1 title, so much that certain football fans referred to their league as a farmers' league so PSG winning the Ligue 1 title again was no surprise.

The same thing applied to the German Bundesliga. The big news was not Bayern Munich winning the trophy, the big news after the win was Harry Kane finally breaking his trophy curse.

Despite having a prolific career that spanned over 10 years already, this was the English captain's first time winning a trophy.

It was crazy but it was reality.

In the German league, it seemed like things were finally back to default settings after Bayer Leverkusen's legendary unbeaten run last season, clinching the title from Bayern Munich to extend the duration of Harry Kane's curse.

The Spanish La Liga was no different. FC Barcelona or Real Madrid winning the La Liga title was not a new occurrence but more of a regular one, Athletico Madrid winning it either would not feel too odd.

Afterall, the first 2 were the 2 big giants of Spanish football while Athletico Madrid was a close runner for 3rd position.

The shocks this season though were provided in the English premier league that was rated 1 among the top 5 European leagues, and then the Italian Serie A.

What Napoli did, led by Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen 2 seasons earlier to clinching the Italian league title was widely accepted by football fans as occurrences that happen once in decades.

Afterall, it was the first Scudetto win of the Italian club for decades after their legendary run under the legendary Diego Maradona.

That league victory cemented Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen's statuses as legendary figures in Naples, exploding them to the world stage.

After that season though, the Italian league returned to default settings as it was Inter Milian, AC Milan, and Juventus challenging for the trophy again.

Nobody expected that just one year later, another such legendary underdog run like that of Napoli 2 seasons earlier would happen again.

This time, it was Atalanta and this time, it was led by Ademola Lookman, the reigning CAF player of the year winner.

The Nigerian International was electric all season, chipping in with iconic performances to drag his team from the throes of defeat to victory regularly even as the rest of the Atalanta team also stepped up in crucial moments.

Their coach did the rest, providing them the perfect foundation to flourish as they ended up winning the Scudetto, creating a crazy underdog story.

Atalanta's Scudetto victory was a crazy underdog story, but it still paled in comparison to what happened this season in the English premier league.

This season, the world of football was taken by storm as the impossible happened, ending a crazy season with Fulham winning the premier league trophy!

Only regular watchers of the English premier league would know how shocking and impossible this feat was.

Before the season started, Fulham's A.I-predicted chances of winning the premier league title was literally 0!

That was how low of a chance they had of winning the league title.

Their chances was not just low, it was literally non-existent!

In a league featuring the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur all in the same league, it was literally impossible for underdog stories to be created.

It was the toughest football league in the world for a reason. Continue your saga on My Virtual Library Empire

When Leicester happened back in 2016, a lot of football fans attributed Leicester's underdog story to the fact that most of the heavy hitters of the premier league all had an off-season in that specific season.

But even this argument was not valid with Fulham this season.

Afterall, Liverpool recorded a crazy 96-point season! And yet, Fulham still won the premier league trophy.

This was beyond crazy, this was bamboozling.

Of course, with Fulham's victory, the main man at the center of it all was pushed to prominence as Sam's superstar status in England rose even higher.

Not just in Fulham anymore, across the cities of England, he became a big celebrity as a lot of football fans now knew about him.

Of course, with such popularity came new endorsement deals as Sam entered negotiations with a few big companies.

While all of this happened and the football world slowly processed the fact that a football campaign was over, to the professional football players, they embraced the rare holiday period.

Big professional football players all around the world posted pictures of them winding down with their families and friends after such a grueling season.

Some went on holiday trips; anything that could help relieve stress.

And Sam was no different. Unlike most of the others who went on luxurious trips though, as soon as the season came to an end, alongside his girlfriend, Sam took a flight to Nigeria to meet his family.

Unlike before, his status was even bigger now.

In the airport, he was swarmed by a mob of football fans as the manager of the airport had to come out just to escort him, unknown to Sam that the man was also a fan till he later secretly requested an autograph.

"…"

Sam was speechless. 'Damn! I really am big now'.

Once he managed to extricate himself out of the crowd after doing his best to attend to them a bit, he finally entered the car that was prepared for him alongside his girlfriend as they rode off.

Driving through the familiar Abuja Road, Sam looked outside through the window, sighing. 'It feels like ages ago since I've been here'. He thought.