Rise of a Football God

Immediately after the semifinal game between Fulham FC and Liverpool, social media was taken by storm.

In twitter and in all major social media platforms, the news was about Fulham's incredible comeback victory against a star-studded Liverpool team in the EFL Cup semifinal and the game's star, Samuel Moses.

Despite entering the game at just 2 minutes from regular fulltime, Sam still managed to influence the game, singlehandedly winning it for his team.

Clips of his overhead kick goal were all over tik tok and YouTube.

And for the umpteenth time in his still budding career as a professional football player, Sam experienced all his social media accounts experiencing a crazy upsurge in followership as the hype around him in England truly picked up.

After his performance against Manchester City in the FIFA Club World Cup final, he announced his name to the world but even as he got a lot of fans due to it, he also got a lot of doubters and downright haters.

There were questions, was he just a one-season wonder?

Could he do it in a league bigger than the NPFL?

And now, Samuel Moses provided his answer to his doubters with his incredible performance as a super sub in the EFL Cup semifinal game.

All over social media, there was a lot of hype, questions like if Samuel Moses was the newest star of the Fulham FC team.

Questions like if Samuel Moses was the last piece of the puzzle to complete a Fulham team that could go on to shock England.

There were a lot of speculations and hype as Sam's prestige in England truly picked up, but Sam paid very little attention to what happened on social media.

The Liverpool game was not the end of the world.

After spending a full season and a half in Enyimba FC already, Sam already knew this. The life of a professional football player was not easy, it was hectic and if he wanted to stay at the top, he needed to stay focused and dedicated.

This was why Sam shut off all the noise and hype around him, focusing on his football instead.

He knew that if in the next game, he played bad, people would forget all the hype about him mere days ago and start hating him, labeling him a wonder for only one game and this became motivation for him to work even harder.

After the Liverpool game, like usual, even as his players were exhausted and were recovering from the fatigue of the intense game, Marco Silva already started preparation for future fixtures as he sent his players fixtures to 2 games.

(FA Cup- 4th round!)

(Fulham – Newcastle)

(Date: 27th January, 2024)n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

…

(EFL Cup- Final!)

(Chelsea – Fulham)

(Date: 25th February, 2024)

(Venue: Wembley Stadium)

After Sam's incredible performance in the game against Liverpool, knocking the English giants off the tournament, he booked his team a spot in Wembley Stadium for a blockbuster encounter with Chelsea FC next month.

Alongside the fixture message, Coach Marco Silva also sent a congratulatory message to his players, commending them on their performance and also the need to perform even better in the EFL Cup final.

Making it to the final of any competition in England was not easy, and Marco Silva didn't just want to be a passenger riding along after getting to this stage.

He wanted his team to give their all and win the EFL trophy.

If not anything, it would be the highlight moment of his coaching career.

This was why he sent the congratulatory message which also dubbed as a motivation message to his players. If they were to win against Chelsea come next month, the squad needed to work harder than ever before.

And on that day, they had to give above 100% on the football pitch.

The message didn't change anything to Sam though, it only made him more focused on his goal. 'I intended to win from the very beginning'.

'Against Chelsea is hard but it's not anything I've not experienced before'.

'I've faced Manchester City and I performed'.

'I've faced Liverpool and I performed'.

'I just have to keep working hard and be in my best state, then even against Chelsea or any other team in the world, I can perform too'.

After the Liverpool game, the Fulham players had just 2 days to rest and prepare for their next game in the FA Cup round.

Considering how much energy they put into the Liverpool game, it was literally impossible for all the star players to fully recover before the FA Cup game but they could not complain, it is what it is.

That morning, Sam woke up early like usual, quickly jogging off to complete his daily system quest and when he was done, again, he was the first Fulham player to report to training in the morning.

This time though, Marco Silva no longer ignored his diligence. Once he drove into the stadium, Sam was the first player that he walked up to meet.

He hugged his player, then smiling at him, he commended. "The stadium staff have been telling me about your diligence since you came to the club, keep it up Sam, your mentality is one of a kind".

Thinking of something, he chuckled. "I still can't believe you actually confronted me to let you play, you have balls boy".

Sam laughed. "I just had to do it; you were not seeing me and I had to make you see me".

Coach Marco Silva laughed before patting him on the shoulder.

A few minutes later, the Fulham players made their way to the gym before later entering the pitch as they trained for their next game.

And again, Sam was a stand-out player in training.

With his physical conditioning elixirs that he got from his system every day after completing the daily system quest, Sam had a massive advantage over every other professional football player in the world.

He could recover from match fatigue far faster than other players.

And after training ended that day, when Marco Silva finally revealed his starting XI for the Newcastle game, Sam was left grinning from ear to ear.

For the first time since coming to England, Sam finally made the starting XI formation of Fulham.

He would be starting against Newcastle.