Chapter 560: Izan-Land

Chapter 560: Izan-Land

The ball swerved like it was cursed, dipping beneath the bar but only after it kissed the inside of the post.

Henderson didn’t move.

He couldn’t and the irony, he knew since the ball left Izan’s foot.

“GOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLL!” Jon Champion’s voice cracked like thunder.

“IZAN HAS DONE IT!” Sutton shouted over him.

“MY GOD! What a goal! What a moment! That’s a cup quarter-final strike!”

“From the brink of elimination to resurrection—Arsenal are alive!”

Izan didn’t even so much as flinch after the goal.

He jogged into the goal, picked the ball up like it was his birthright, and jogged it back to the center circle.

No screaming.

No smile.

Just intention.

He placed the ball on the center dot, then stood over it like a captain at war.

Guehi and Eze were still breathing heavily, hands on hips, trying to shake the punch to the ribs that goal had delivered.

They’d spent their energy celebrating the save.

But the real danger had been waiting behind it.

“He’s not just a player,” Sutton murmured now, as the camera zoomed in on Izan’s face—stoic, unreadable, burning with something more than confidence.

“He’s an inevitability.”

Jon Champion, voice low, almost reverent: “That’s not just a strike to equalize—it’s a belter to take them forward.”

From the crowd came chants, low at first, then louder—carried like wind through the stands:

Izan, Izan, Izan…

…

The restart came slowly, almost reluctantly.

Crystal Palace had been hit—not with a blow, but with a shift.

Momentum.

Confidence.

Belief.

The air at Selhurst Park was electric, thick with something unspoken.

The Arsenal faithful had gone from silence to a full-blown symphony.

A storm was building, and every person in red knew the lightning was wearing number 10.

Eze stood over the ball as the match resumed, lips pursed, eyes scanning.

Palace weren’t collapsing—not yet.

But they were rattled.

The crowd, still rising from their seats after Izan’s stunning equalizer, hadn’t even calmed when Eze took off.

Gliding past one, then another, his hair bouncing with every stride.

If Izan was the prodigy, Eze was the artist trying to leave his own signature.

“Well, Eze isn’t folding,” Jon Champion said, the mic barely catching his chuckle.

“He wants the last word here.”

“That’s the thing about players like him,” Chris Sutton replied.

“Give them space, they’ll remind you they were in the script too. They’ll prove that Izan isn’t the only player in the match.”

Eze ghosted in between Jorginho and Calafiori, cut left, and let fly from just outside the box.

It swerved, and dipped low—but Neto had read it early.

He sprawled to his right and tipped it around the post, fingers grazing the ball just enough.

“A good save!” Champion shouted.

“Palace nearly pinched it back with one swing!”

As Palace jogged up for the corner, Henderson sprinted to the halfway line, barking orders, waving arms like a conductor at war with the tempo.

He knew what was coming next.

Or he thought he did.

The corner came in—a fast, flat whip from the right—but Gabriel subbed on earlier, was there.

All chest, all command.

He rose above everyone and powered it away.

The ball landed at Saka’s feet, and without thinking, he booted it downfield.

Anywhere would do.

But it wasn’t anywhere.

It was Izan’s path and there he was, already moving.

Already sprinting.

Already turning a clearance into prophecy.

The Palace defenders froze for half a second and that was all it took.

Their legs heavy.

Their hearts heavier.

Izan’s eyes tracked the ball like a hawk in mid-dive.

He wasn’t trying to control it—he was trying to make it his.

The ball spun higher into the night, curling through the crisp winter air like a whisper only one player could hear.

It finally came down, awkwardly near the halfway line—too slow for a full sprint, too fast for a simple trap.

But Izan never tried to stop it.

Instead, he let it kiss the rise of his thigh—a perfect lift.

Gentle. Balanced. Alive.

As all things should be.

The ball popped back into the air again like it was obeying him, but it was slightly lower.

“NICE, Touch from Izan” Chris Sutton called out.

Izan as if already with an idea in mind, readied himself, took a glance ahead and then turned his body—torso twisting, right leg rising—and swung.

Ding, [Pinpoint Accuracy LV 3 Activated ]

A clean strike.

No delay.

No second guess.

Just the crack of contact, the silence after sound, the flight and then the launch as the ball zoomed forward.

The Selhurst Park faithful—half of them still on their feet from the last chance—froze.

Their cheers died before their voices caught up.

The ball was moving.

Up.

Then out.

A slicing arc across the pitch like someone had carved the air with a blade.

Dean Henderson had already taken a step forward before he realized.

The moment he turned, it was too late.

His knees shifted, boots twisting into the turf, hands instinctively rising—but everything about it was reactive.

Izan’s strike wasn’t made to be saved.

It was made to be remembered.

“AND HE’S GONE FOR IT!” Jon Champion roared but even he was a beat too slow.

The ball finally dipped.

Beautifully.

Cruelly.

As if the football gods had tugged it down themselves.

Henderson backpedaled, arms flailing like a man trying to rewind time with his fingertips.

But he wasn’t close.

Not even a prayer could stop the ball as it curved one final inch.

Then kissed the top corner of the net.

Just enough to ripple the netting like silk.

1–2.

And for a heartbeat, Selhurst Park stopped existing.

The away end exploded in light and sound.

Flares igniting in a cloud of red and white.

Fans tumbling over one another.

Arms raised. Heads back.

Voices gone.

The commentary had broken too.

“Confidence in and of itself.” Sutton roared. “This all looks too easy for him!”

“Genius Personified!” Champion howled.

“That is madness, accuracy, and defiance all at once!”

The Palace players stood in scattered disbelief.

Some dropped to their knees.

Some stayed frozen mid-step.

Henderson knelt, hands on thighs, head bowed—not in shame, but in awe.

Even the Arsenal bench didn’t move at first.

They were too stunned.

It was like watching a story unfold with a pen still scribbling on the page.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Champion finally said, barely above a whisper, “this might be just a carabao cup but this is class from both teams.”

Sutton’s voice dropped low. Reverent.

“Forget comparisons. Forget age. What we’re watching tonight… is the greatest talent the game has ever seen.”

Izan, walking back from the pile of fans that had encroached on the pitch to celebrate, smiled and pointed one finger in the air.

As if to, remember the fans of something.

….

Palace barely touched the ball after the restart—just a pass back, almost ceremonial, like a box being ticked.

The life had been pulled out of them in one devastating arc of brilliance.

And so, the referee did the only humane thing left.

Two blasts, sharp and echoing through the cold London air.

Then another, final and clear.

Full-time.

Crystal Palace 1, Arsenal 2.

The cameras panned slowly, catching fragments of raw reaction—Palace players with hands on hips, some dropped to their knees, heads tilted skyward in disbelief.

Henderson still hadn’t moved much, sitting on the turf with his arms braced behind him, eyes locked on the net like it might still be vibrating.

In the booth, Chris Sutton broke the silence first, his voice filled with the aftershocks of what he’d just witnessed.

“You don’t walk onto a pitch at 17 and do that unless you’re writing a story bigger than anyone can imagine,” he said.

But Jon Champion didn’t echo the sentiment immediately.

He waited, watching Izan and his teammates begin the long walk toward the far end of Selhurst Park, toward the away stand.

And then, he spoke—calm, deliberate, with the weight of truth.

“No, Chris. Not a teenager staking a claim to the future… because he isn’t the future.” He exhaled slightly.

“He’s the present. This game, this moment, it all belonged to him. To Izan. And whether the world’s ready or not, we’re living in his era now.”

The away end was a sea of limbs and scarves and shining eyes.

Fathers gripping sons, friends gripping each other, strangers turned family under the same chant: Izan, Izan, Izan…

He didn’t raise his hands or beat his chest.

He just clapped.

Slow, even, heartfelt.

His gaze scanned the rows of traveling supporters—silent acknowledgment, almost like an apology for the panic that had come before the poetry.

Around him, the other players joined in, forming a quiet line across the touchline, each of them touched by the magnitude of what had happened.

After a final wave, they turned together and walked, not as conquering heroes, but as men carrying the afterglow of something they couldn’t fully explain.

A/n: First of the day. Don’t forget to check out my book below. Also hope you liked it. As usual, I like interacting with you guys and I also try to follow your feedback so don’t shy away not matter how harsh it is. Thanks for reading.

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