In the stadium, the stands were barely filled, and it seemed that even a quarter of the seats weren't occupied.
But even so, the cheers from the fans were loud enough to make Lucas Silva lick his lips nervously.
"Lucas, stop zoning out today! Stay focused on the bench and be ready at any moment. I don't want you making consecutive mistakes like last time. Just do like what you have done in the last training!"
Just as Lucas was getting lost in his thoughts, a bald and stern-looking man in a tracksuit shouted at him. The man was the coach of the team.
"Oh… okay…" Lucas nodded mechanically.
He couldn't help but look around, glancing at his jersey and the burly players around him, and he swallowed nervously.
He was really here, really standing in a professional football stadium! Although this was just a lower-league match in England, it was still professional football!
Lucas had played in competitive matches before, but this was his first time playing in England. Because at this moment, Lucas's body no longer belonged to its original owner.
As the rest of the team gathered to pump each other up, Lucas stood there, lost in thought once again. His mind was racing, trying to make sense of all the incredible things that had happened in the past few days.
Three days ago…
Lucas opened his eyes groggily, staring up at the white ceiling. The air was filled with the sterile scent of medical alcohol, and there was no doubt that he was in a hospital room.
"How are you feeling?" A nurse, noticing that Lucas had woken up, smiled warmly at him.
"I feel fine, I…"
Lucas began to speak but suddenly stopped short. The words coming out of his mouth were not in Portuguese. The nurse beside his bed wasn't Brazilian, either—she was a blonde, English-speaking foreigner!
'What's going on!?' Lucas panicked internally, and his mind raced as he searched through his memories.
Before this bizarre incident, he was a university graduate in Brazil, living a fairly ordinary life in 2024. He didn't own a house, didn't have a car, and had no significant savings. His mother had remarried and moved to another city when he was young, and he hadn't seen her since.
His father was an absentee, someone who had never taken responsibility for him. They hadn't spoken in years.
The last thing he remembered was watching the Champions League Final match on a beat-up TV in the tiny apartment he rented when a sudden thunderstorm knocked out the power. Frustrated, Lucas decided to fix the old TV, but as soon as he opened the back of the set, a jolt of electricity shot through him, and everything went black.
The next thing he knew, he was waking up in this strange hospital room.
"Sir, are you okay?" The blonde nurse asked, her voice full of concern as she spoke in English.
Lucas had learned some English in school, but he hadn't used it in years. Yet, strangely, he could understand every word she said!
"I… where am I? Can you speak Portuguese? Why are there foreign nurses here?"
"Huh?" The nurse looked at him in confusion, puzzled by his nonsensical questions.
"Uh… never mind… I'm just a bit tired. I'd like to rest alone for a while." Lucas waved her away, trying to process the surreal situation.
As the nurse left, Lucas took the opportunity to delve into the unfamiliar memories now occupying his mind.
The owner of this body was also named Lucas Silva, but this Lucas was a Brazilian-English dual national. His father was English, and his mother was Brazilian. His full name was Lucas Silva Thompson. He grew up in England.
Despite the dual nationality, life hadn't been easy for this Lucas. His family wasn't well off, with his father working as a mechanic and his mother as a cleaner. They had done everything they could to support his football dream, but it had been a struggle.
As Lucas continued to explore these foreign memories, he realized he had somehow traveled back in time—specifically to 2011. He had reincarnated thirteen years earlier, in a different country and in a body that wasn't originally his.
Suddenly filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety, Lucas jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom in the ward to splash water on his face. Everything felt different; the room seemed smaller, and his body felt larger.
But no matter how much water he splashed on his face, the reality didn't change. He was still in England, still in a body that wasn't his own.
After washing his face, Lucas looked at the reflection in the mirror. The young man staring back at him was unfamiliar, with sharp features and a build that spoke of years of athletic training.
As the memories continued to flood in, Lucas discovered that the original owner of this body had fainted on the training ground after a nasty collision with another player, hitting the back of his head. When he woke up, it was as though a new consciousness—Lucas's consciousness—had taken over.
"Wait… football pitch!?" The realization hit him, and Lucas looked down at his body in surprise. He finally understood why everything around him seemed smaller—it wasn't the room that had shrunk; he had grown taller!
Now, Lucas was over 1.85 meters tall and weighed 79 kilograms! And this guy was a professional football player!
A sudden burst of joy made Lucas laugh out loud. Here he was, inhabiting the body of a professional footballer, something he had only dreamed about in his previous life. Fortunately, he was alone in the room; otherwise, his outburst might have had him transferred to the psychiatric ward.
As a football enthusiast in his previous life, Lucas had always dreamed of playing professionally, stepping onto the pitch in front of thousands of fans, and competing with the best in the world. Even if he wasn't a star, just being a rotational player and earning a decent salary would have been a dream come true.
And now, that dream has become a reality!
Though he had traveled back thirteen years, Lucas didn't have any business acumen, but he could make something by betting on games he remembered. Apart from this, he didn't know how to make it in this foreign land. But with this new chance, Lucas was determined not to repeat the frustrations of his past life; he also wanted to be a professional player more than a rich man.
The only thing on his mind now was to excel as a professional player. He wanted to sign big contracts, buy luxury cars, live in luxury houses, find love, and reach the pinnacle of life.
But as Lucas reveled in his newfound excitement, a sobering thought crept in.
Though he was a professional player now, it wasn't with one of the elite clubs.
In his academy days, the original Lucas had played for a small academy team that barely competed at the national level. He had the talent, but it wasn't enough to attract the attention of Premier League clubs.
Last summer, while one of his teammates had secured contracts with Sunderland, Lucas had waited in vain for a call that never came.
Eventually, he had been signed by Brentford, a lower-league team, barely hanging on to his professional dream.
To make matters worse, Lucas was now struggling to secure even a spot in the starting lineup. The coach had expressed his dissatisfaction, and Lucas was in danger of being released from the team altogether.
His parents had spent nearly all their savings to support his football career, and if he couldn't make it in England, Lucas would have to pack away his dreams and return to Brazil to start a new life, likely as a mechanic like his father.