Chapter 876: Enjoying the Achievement

After the training session, Higo was back at his flat, sitting comfortably on the couch with the trophy in his hand. He also checked his phone and found a highlight of himself uploaded by the Bundesliga’s official account on X, Instagram, and even YouTube, with a clear caption.

Your Rookie of the Month October Edition: Ryusuke Higo!

It was a nine-minute highlight, showing all of the saves that he made in October. In the description, the account gave details on his statistics, telling everyone why he deserved this award.

Ryusuke Higo: 4 games – 3 goals conceded (2nd in the league) – 43 saves (1st in the league)

Yeah, somehow, in terms of goals conceded, Higo fell into second place. The first one was snatched by Manuel Neuer from Bayern Munich, but the goalkeeper couldn’t be credited fully for that achievement.

No, even though the man only conceded 2 goals, his number of saves was so low here; he only made 7 saves with the same amount of game time as Higo. That meant Neuer made fewer than 2 saves per game, which was way below Higo, who averaged more than 10 saves per game.

In this case, it was clear that Bayern Munich conceding only two goals in a month was due to the team’s good defensive system, not something that the goalkeeper had to carry alone like what Higo did at Schalke.

That was why, when compared between those two, even though some were still quite begrudging about it, they had to admit that Higo was way better in this regard.

Still, it is a pity that he failed to get the player of the month, right?

I know, right?! It would be a legendary story if a goalkeeper won one!

Yeah, good luck with that. As long as Lewy is here, no one will win anything individual in this league.

Reading all the comments about that sentiment, Higo couldn’t help but frown as well. After all, his performance in October was so ridiculous that no goalkeeper would be able to touch him, and yet, it was still not enough to beat Lewandowski’s performance here.

Still, the Polish striker also had a ridiculously terrifying month in October that Higo couldn’t complain about this time.

Out of all the three games that he played, the man bagged 9 goals, including a hat-trick against Eintracht Frankfurt and four goals against Hertha Berlin. In total, he averaged a hat-trick in every game, leading the top scorer list by miles.

The man, by no controversy, deserved to be the best player of the month.

Of course, this also gave Higo a new perspective. Well... Not new, per se, just a confirmation of an old one that crossed his mind in the past.

’Yeah, this means no matter how good my performance is, if some outfield players have a similar or even slightly lower level, people would still favor them over me. The disadvantage of being a defensive player sure is clear as day in the football world, huh?’ He snorted wryly.

At this point, he realized once again how hard it would be to get the Kopa Award. As long as someone had a year that was as good as his, but as an outfielder, that would be enough to beat the boy in that award. The European competition also played a big factor, since Higo himself wouldn’t play in one this season.

That only lowered his chance to win the whole thing, and honestly, the more Higo thought about it, the less he felt confident about his big target with Morita.

Still, that was a matter of the future. Right now, he looked at the trophy in his hand carefully, and the boy couldn’t hide his grin at this point.

This award was quite massive for Higo, as this was the first time he got something like that since the boy started his professional career. He couldn’t help but take a photo of the trophy before posting it on his social media with a bold and confident caption.

The first of so many more.

The implication was clear here. He intended to win more awards in the future, and his followers loved how confident he was in this case.

Yes, Higo! You will only get better! Aim for higher!

Come on! We are waiting for more trophies!

I say, you should’ve moved to a Champions League team next year! That would bring you closer to the spotlight!

Higo spent the rest of the night with a big smile on his face, enjoying all the praise that he received on social media. Hell, some of his friends, like Kuroki, Makino, and even Hiroshi, also joined the fun, sending their piece of mind in private messages.

Saburo Kuroki: You owe me a week full of yakiniku, not a day less, okay?

Tomoaki Makino: Damn, Chibi! Don’t be so smug about your achievement! Just wait, next year, I will also be there!

Hiroshi Tsuburaya: Congratulations, Senpai! I will also work hard to get there!

’Damn, out of everyone else, only Hiroshi-kun congratulates me genuinely, huh? As expected, he is the best kouhai in the world.’ Higo couldn’t help but snort, finding this to be quite amusing.

He replied to some messages that came from the people that he knew one by one quite patiently, sometimes even taking his time to think of a proper way to thank them. However, based on the smile on his face, it was clear that the boy found this activity to be enjoyable, finding himself loving to be in the spotlight.

He replied to some friends, accepted the call from his mother and sister, and even chatted for quite a while with Kumiko, who was in Cologne, as she also praised him and expressed her admiration for the boy’s achievement.

In the end, though, the boy didn’t know when, but his consciousness started to slip away due to exhaustion. The last thing he thought, though, was, ’This is just a rookie of the month award. I wonder how they would react if it is something bigger... Man, that would be awesome, right?’