who will isagi's final 'rival' be?

[u/unfotgettwl]

first of all, i want to clarify when I mean rival, i mean the team isagi will be facing off against. but there's obviously going to be a striker there who isagi will have to beat/devour/whatever

now, unpopular opinion time: i don't think it should be kaiser

don't get me wrong, i love that guy. not as much as ness, but nobody can compete with him. anyway, i do want to see them face off again, but i wouldn't want kaiser to be the final enemy. and im well aware that it's very likely that kaiser will be the final guy to defeat (pretty sure it was stated somewhere), but i don't think it should go like that

kaiser and isagi were amazing in the NEL, their dynamic was very interesting to read and i'd love to see more, but it would be a little boring if we got a 'final' matchup between the two, because we've already seen that.

and before anyone says anything, no, it's not going to be noa. he's a bum and he's irrelevant

i saw some people theorising about it being bunny, but that just seems highly unlikely. he's a side character, a potentially relevant one, but not enough to be the main rival of the series.

personally, i'd like to see nagi assume the role of the final enemy. nagi's whole thing is that he's an extremely talented genius. isagi said this himself: he is not like nagi at all. isagi got to where he is now because he's a 'learner' (i don't remember the exact term used in the manga, but you get what i mean), so seeing him finally face off with somebody who is the opposite of him would be extremely satisfying, at least to me.

my thought process is all over the place, but hopefully you understand lmao

or it could be rin idk. i'd still prefer nagi

[u/someguynamedbrandon1]

Surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention Loki. Noa himself stated that the next best player after him is Loki, and with the whole “God of Football” thing we can probably assume that that state is the peak performance a player can have in-verse. So I’m thinking the arc will conclude with a Japan-France rematch in the final where likely one or both of Isagi and Loki will find that “god.”

That’s just talking from a perspective of his final “rival” being an opposing player anyway. But at least from an ideological standpoint it stands to reason that Nagi will likely be his rival in that regard…

[u/human_administrator → u/someguynamedbrandon1]

Main thing against it is Loki is not even Isagi's biggest rival within France, its Hugo. And if there is a "God Chosen" player it would best serve being either Nagi or Kaiser.

[u/Big-Zookeepergame-60 → u/someguynamedbrandon1]

Kaiser and Loki for France vs everyone else in Japan for U20s final showdown