Blue Dream Trail (Soccer) - Episode 16

September 2026, after Bundesliga round 5

That morning, a long-established German soccer magazine featured a surprising player in a double-page spread. Specialized magazinesKicker

The headline read:

“Wunder aus dem Nichts (A miracle that came from nothing)”

A long pass near the center line.

That’s when the brilliant move came about.

It then became the starting point for a speedy attack that spread to the opposite side.

The number 19 jersey is in the center of the photo.

“It was only 20 minutes, but the crowd and the media will remember his name.”

“Judgment and execution like a precision machine”

“This quiet 19-year-old could change Augsburg.”

The paper praised a young man who had come on from the bench.

The article made it into Clubhouse that morning.

In the locker room, several players gathered around it and started to make noise.

“Was that long pass yesterday aimed at you?”

“That’s the first time the coach has praised a player who came off the bench.”

“Are ‘Japanese’ people really like this?”

There were some joking voices, but the underlying atmosphere was one of definite interest.

Ren didn’t say anything.

He simply puts on his uniform quietly. Even his movements are somehow dignified.

Suddenly, I felt someone looking at me. When I looked up, CB Philip was holding out his hand without a word.

When Ren took it, he nodded slightly and said,

“You’ve come to this side since last night.”

Just before practice began, the manager was whispering to the coach.

“…I may have misunderstood the meaning of the word ‘calm’ a little.”

“He’s not frozen. He’s burning. Inside, quietly.”

After practice that day, Ren was alone, watching the video on his laptop.

Rewind and rewatch your 20 minutes over and over again.

(If this is the “entrance”…)

(Next, we move on to the “controlling” side.)

No one is shouting his name on the pitch yet.

But it was still there. That pass. That gaze. That silence.

The name “REN NAOE” was quietly but surely beginning to be etched into the memory of the nation.

Several players silently watched Ren’s back as he left the pitch.

One of them muttered softly.

“…Next time, you’ll be in the starting lineup. Without a doubt.”

In one corner of the locker room, a staff member had posted a note on a whiteboard, saying:

It listed the predicted starting lineup for the league match a few days later.

[CM── NAOE]

No one was surprised when they saw those four letters.

–And then the weekend.

Naoe Ren will be heading to the stage as the first person to “step onto the pitch from the start.”