What makes this so so good is not how satisfying it is to see Aoi's growth, or even the romance between Aoi and Hana which I'm a sucker for, but the realism it displays especially in later chapters.

As someone who has followed football for years, seeing such accurate depictions of not only footballing styles, but the positive and negative culture around football is immensely enthralling storytelling.

From elitism within clubs to toxic fan culture, racism, the impact of money, how footballing culture differs worldwide etc etc; the author has clearly done their research and it makes the story so much richer as a result. Genuinely amazing.

I loved the anime so much and my friend kept pestering me to read the manga so I did. Being able to visualize the voices of the characters from the show over the manga panels is really nice. The manga continues the pure hype from the anime, loving it.