CHAPTER 99: POST-MATCH PRESS CONFERENCE

As Lukas finished applauding the fans together with his teammates, he walked down the pitch with Uzun, Knauff and Larsson as they headed to a group of Bayern players near the center of the pitch.

Müller, Sané, Olise, and Musiala were chatting about something. Well, three of them were talking, Olise just listened. Lukas walked up to the group and shook hands with them.

"Great game, man," Müller said as he shook Lukas’s hand.

"Thanks. You too. Can we exchange shirts, please?"

"Of course," Müller replied as they both peeled their shirts off their backs and handed them to each other.

"Sorry, but have we met before?" Musiala asked, seemingly unable to hold back his curiosity anymore.

Lukas looked at him for a second, then smiled. "Yes, we have. During the Euros. You gave me your shirt after the game against Switzerland."

"Ohhhh, that’s true! No wonder you looked so familiar. Wait, the game was at the Frankfurt stadium, right?"

"Yeah, it was."

"I see. So you were with their academy back then?"

"I was still on trial to join the academy at the time."

"WHAT?!" Musiala, Sané, and Müller said at the same time.

"Wait, you mean you were transferring from another academy at the time?" Sané asked.

"No, I had just been dropped from my previous academy. I was on trial at Riederwald."

"You were dropped?! From which academy?"

"SV Darmstadt. My hometown. It’s a long story. But yeah, my dad brought me to the Deutsche Bank Park to watch the game, and you gave me your shirt there."

The Bayern players were speechless when they heard that the kid who had just caused them massive headaches for 90 minutes was dropped by a 2. Bundesliga academy less than a year ago.

"It’s their loss, I guess. You had a wonderful game. Keep it up, and I’m sure I’ll see you very soon," Musiala said as he tapped Lukas on his shoulder.

"Musiala himself playing scout?" Knauff asked as he raised hus right eyebrow.

"Well as much as I won’t mind having you in my club, I was actually referring to another team," Musiala said as he discretely used his head to point to one of the executive boxes.

Lukas followed his eye sight and he saw Nagelsmann up high looking directly at him.

"I guess coach Julian is already thinking what I’m thinking," Musiala said with a smile as he tapped Lukas on the back and walked out of the stadium.

Lukas looked at the Bundestrainer for a brief moment before breaking eye contact and walking out of the pitch too.

* * *

As Lukas walked down the tunnel with his man of the match award for his 2 goals and an assist in the game, he had Müller’s shirt hanging on his shoulder and an unreadable expression on his face.

"You played well today, Lukas. We were unlucky not to at least come out with a point. Don’t let it affect your mood too much," Larsson said as he attempted to console Lukas.

"I know... I just don’t like losing," Lukas responded.

"None of us do. We’ll get ’em next time," Knauff said from Lukas’s left.

"Yes, we will," Lukas said as he cracked a little smile.

"I’ve gotta say, no matter how many times I hear it, it never ceases to amaze me how far you’ve come in such a short time, Luke. Your journey so far has been nothing short of awe-inspiring," Larsson said as he tried to lift the mood.

"Hahaha... Thank you... It hasn’t been easy. But we keep pushing, I guess," Lukas responded. "I can’t remember how many times I felt I was gonna die during an LTC training session, though,"

he thought as they walked into the dressing room where coach Toppmöller was waiting.

* * *

"Why did he bring me here?" Lukas thought as he looked around the packed conference room.

Lights flashed occasionally from the photographers behind the reporters as the moderator, a middle-aged lady, started the question-and-answer session.

"We’ll be taking 3 questions each from the Bavaria- and Hesse-based news agencies. Okay, you," she said as she pointed at a male reporter in the front row.

"Hello, I am Thomas Leitner from Süddeutsche Zeitung. Coach Toppmöller, how do you evaluate the way the Bayern team played compared to what you were expecting? Was it above or below your expectations?"

"Ahem... You know we lost the game, right? I obviously wasn’t going into the game hoping to lose. So I would say they obviously played above what I expected. But I believe my team also played above expectations as they made the win extremely difficult for a club like Bayern."

The next reporter to be given permission was a blonde female.

"Miriam Vogel – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Lukas, congratulations on winning the player of the match award, how do you feel about the performance today?"

"Thank you, but I’d rather not win it if it means getting some points from the match. The Bundesliga table doesn’t rank teams based on how many man of the match awards the players on that team have won.

Like the coach said, though, I think we played well and we made life very uncomfortable for the Bayern players in the Allianz Arena — a location where they are almost always dominant. That is not easy, and we will look to build on that performance."

Another reporter was selected to ask questions.

"Patrick Schmid – Kicker. Beautiful goals today, Lukas, unfortunate not to come out with a point. I want to ask about your celebrations. The first one where you bowed to the fans and the second where you faced the camera, is there something behind those celebrations?"

"Uhhh... The first one, I don’t know. I just felt I needed to give the crowd a response after the noise they were making whenever I held the ball... As for the second, it was a promise to someone back home. They asked me to score a goal for them and I told them I’d try.

Both times, the goals were equalizers too, so I just did the first thing that came to mind at the time."

"Final question now," the moderator said after a few reporters asked Toppmöller about the game and his plan moving forward.

"Sabine Maier – Münchner Merkur. A question for Mr. Brandt, please. Do you ever see yourself playing for Bayern?" The reporter, a bald middle-aged man, asked.

Up till this point, there had been no transfer rumours or links between Lukas and any other club. Not even talks on Instagram or X comments telling him to "Come to XYZ club," but this reporter had just opened the floodgates of rumours with one question.

Cameras flashed as the photographers tried to get Lukas and Toppmöller’s exact expressions at the time of the questioning.

"Excuse me?"

The words came out of Lukas’s mouth without him having to think about it. "I didn’t quite understand your question. Did you just ask if I’d play for Bayern?" Lukas asked with a deadpan expression.

"Yes," the reporter answered, equally serious.

"I am an Eintracht Frankfurt player. At no point have I considered playing for another club. Please don’t ask a question like that next time."

"So is that a ’No’?"

"I think that will be all for today, ladies and gentlemen," coach Toppmöller said as he abruptly cut in the middle of the conversation and stood up from his seat. "Lukas, let’s go," he said as he turned to Lukas before heading for the exit, while Lukas got up and followed his coach out.

"What kind of question was that?!" Coach Toppmöller said to his assistant, irritated, as they walked to the dressing room. He had let Lukas head to the dressing room first in order to talk to Zembrod.

"You think Bayern is lurking? The question seems so out of nowhere. What’s the probability he was asked by someone to ask that question?"

"It’s not very unlikely. I wouldn’t put anything past them," Toppmöller replied, as he entered into deep contemplation on the idea of losing Lukas.

With every passing game, it was becoming clear that Lukas wasn’t a player Eintracht could keep for a very long time. He was a player that was bound to be snatched up by a bigger club sooner rather than later.

It was just a matter of when.

Toppmöller had hoped to be able to keep Lukas for one complete season after the end of the current one. But with Lukas’s current exponential growth, and especially after his performance against a club like Bayern, his stock had just skyrocketed, and it might prove a hard task for the club to stave off the interest from big-name clubs. Especially when they can ask for astronomical amounts if his current form continues.

"I guess I need to speak to Krösche," Toppmöller muttered.

"Huh? Were you talking to me?" Zembrod asked.

"No. I just realized something I needed to do."

"Okay."

The men walked to the locker room in silence.

* * *

"I am an Eintracht Frankfurt player. At no point have I ever considered playing for another club." Lukas Brandt’s response to wearing the Bayern shirt as per @Kicker.