There were 'Guardians' like Chivu. And there was a new, unregistered player in Barcelona, a city that just happened to be the home of the one player Chivu's own system had flagged as an "unidentified anomaly": Lamine Yamal.
He felt a profound, disorienting sense of vertigo. He had thought he was the main character in a simple, light-hearted story about football and growing up. He was beginning to realize he might just be a minor player in a much larger, much stranger, and much more dangerous game.
But he didn't have time to process it. He had a flight to catch. He had a fortress to conquer.
The Westfalenstadion in Dortmund was not a stadium; it was a living, breathing entity. The "Yellow Wall," the legendary south stand, was a single, unified organism of 25,000 screaming, singing, bouncing fans, a yellow and black tsunami of pure, unadulterated passion. The noise was a physical thing, a constant, deafening roar that vibrated in your bones.
