L'euphorie liée à la victoire du Ballon d'Or a duré exactement quatre jours.
Le 22 novembre, quatre jours après avoir remporté son troisième titre de champion du monde, Ethan est retourné au centre d'entraînement du FC Barcelone, Sant Joan Despí, et a trouvé l'atmosphère complètement différente. Les félicitations étaient terminées. Les festivités étaient finies. Le plus dur restait à faire : se montrer à la hauteur des attentes liées au titre de meilleur joueur du monde.
Hansi Flick attendait dans son bureau quand Ethan est arrivé à 9h00.
« Encore félicitations pour le Ballon d'Or », dit Flick en invitant Ethan à s'asseoir. « Tu le méritais. Mais maintenant, nous devons parler de quelque chose d'important. »
"Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas?"
« Rien ne va mal. Mais tout est différent maintenant. » Flick se pencha en avant, le visage grave. « Tu n'es plus seulement un bon joueur. Tu es LE joueur. Le meilleur au monde. Officiellement. Ce qui signifie que chaque adversaire aura deux ou trois joueurs pour te marquer. Chaque arbitre te surveillera de plus près. Chaque tacle sera plus dur. Chaque match sera une guerre. »
Ethan savait que ça allait arriver, mais l'entendre dit aussi crûment l'a quand même beaucoup affecté.
« Il nous reste dix-sept matchs avant le retour du Clásico en mars », a poursuivi Flick. « Dix-sept occasions de consolider notre position ou de la perdre. Le Real Madrid est à deux points de nous en Liga. Un mauvais mois et ils prennent la tête. »
"Je sais."
« Vraiment ? Parce que gagner le Ballon d'Or, c'est incroyable, mais ça vous met aussi dans le collimateur. Mbappé va vous attaquer avec encore plus d'acharnement. Vinícius voudra prouver qu'il aurait dû le gagner. Tous les attaquants d'Europe seront comparés à vous désormais. »
Flick a affiché des images sur son ordinateur : les derniers matchs du Real Madrid.
« Regardez ça. Voilà comment Mbappé joue depuis qu'il a perdu le Ballon d'Or. »
La vidéo montrait Mbappé dominant ses adversaires avec une efficacité redoutable. Cinq buts en deux matchs. Des déplacements plus incisifs que jamais. Une finition chirurgicale. Un joueur possédé.
« Il s'en sert comme motivation », a déclaré Flick. « Il viendra au Camp Nou en mars avec la ferme intention de prouver sa valeur. Êtes-vous prêts à relever ce défi ? »
Ethan regardait les images, sentant une étincelle s'allumer en lui. Parfait. Que Mbappé vienne. Qu'il donne tout ce qu'il a.
« Je suis prêt », dit Ethan. « Plus que prêt. »
24 novembre - Reprise des activités
Barcelone contre Celta Vigo au Camp Nou. Premier match après la cérémonie du Ballon d'Or. L'effervescence d'avant-match était incroyable : toutes les caméras étaient braquées sur Ethan pendant l'échauffement, tous les journalistes spéculaient sur sa réaction après avoir remporté le trophée.
La pression était suffocante.
And for seventy-three minutes, it showed. Ethan was off. His first touch was heavy. His decision-making was slow. His shots were off target. Celta defended deep and frustrated Barcelona at every turn.
0-0 with seventeen minutes left. The Camp Nou was getting restless.
Then, in the seventy-fourth minute, something clicked.
Pedri received the ball in midfield, turned away from pressure, and looked up. Ethan had dropped deep to receive, dragging his marker with him. That movement created space for Lewandowski to run into.
Pedri threaded the pass through. Lewandowski took one touch and laid it off to Ethan, who'd spun away from his marker and was now facing goal twenty-five meters out.
Three defenders closed him down immediately. No space to shoot. No time to think.
But Ethan had already calculated three moves ahead. He dinked the ball over the first defender with the outside of his right foot, let it bounce once, then struck it on the half-volley with his left.
The ball swerved viciously, dipping at the last second, catching the goalkeeper off guard.
Top corner. Unstoppable.
1-0 Barcelona.
Camp Nou erupted. Ninety thousand people on their feet. The goal was outrageous—the kind only the best player in the world could score.
Ethan ran to the corner flag, arms spread wide, screaming. This was what he needed. Proof that the Ballon d'Or wasn't just historical achievement—he was still getting better.
Barcelona won 2-0 (Raphinha added a second in the eighty-ninth minute). Three points. Top of the table maintained.
In the post-match interview, a journalist asked: "Does winning the Ballon d'Or add pressure?"
"Pressure is a privilege," Ethan replied, using a line he'd heard Kobe Bryant say years ago. "It means people expect greatness. I welcome that."
December - The Grind
The month of December in football is brutal. Matches every three days. Travel. Media obligations. Physical and mental exhaustion mounting with each passing week.
Barcelona's schedule was particularly insane:
December 1st: Champions League vs Inter Milan (Away) December 4th: La Liga vs Real Betis (Home) December 8th: La Liga vs Girona (Away) December 11th: Champions League vs Napoli (Home) December 15th: La Liga vs Atlético Madrid (Away) December 18th: Copa del Rey Round of 16 (Away) December 22nd: La Liga vs Sevilla (Home)
Seven matches in twenty-one days. No rest. No breaks. Just constant, relentless football.
December 1st - Inter Milan 1-2 Barcelona
The San Siro was hostile and freezing. Inter defended with eleven men behind the ball, making the pitch feel tiny. Barcelona struggled for seventy minutes before Ethan finally broke through with a brilliant individual goal—beating three defenders before finishing. Lewandowski added a second. Barcelona escaped with three points.
Ethan's goal tally: 19 goals in 12 matches
December 4th - Barcelona 3-0 Real Betis
Dominant performance at home. Ethan scored twice, Gavi added another. Barcelona looked back to their best, controlling possession and creating chances at will. Flick's system was clicking perfectly.
Ethan's goal tally: 21 goals in 13 matches
December 8th - Girona 1-1 Barcelona
A frustrating draw against the surprise team of the season. Girona defended brilliantly and scored against the run of play. Ethan equalized in the sixty-seventh minute with a header from Kimmich's corner, but Barcelona couldn't find a winner. Two points dropped.
Real Madrid, playing the same day, won 4-1 against Getafe. Mbappé scored a hat-trick. Suddenly the gap was just one point.
Ethan's goal tally: 22 goals in 14 matches
December 11th - Barcelona 5-2 Napoli
A statement performance in the Champions League. Barcelona destroyed Napoli with attacking football that had the Camp Nou crowd singing for ninety minutes. Ethan scored twice and assisted three. This was the Barcelona that had won back-to-back Champions Leagues—ruthless, clinical, unstoppable.
Ethan's goal tally: 24 goals in 15 matches
December 15th - Atlético Madrid 2-3 Barcelona
The hardest match of the month. Atlético, under Diego Simeone, defended like their lives depended on it. Physical, aggressive, cynical at times. They took a 2-1 lead in the seventy-eighth minute and looked like they'd hold on.
Then Ethan took over.
Eighty-second minute: Kimmich's long ball over the top. Ethan chased it down, beating Atlético's center-back for pace, and finished coolly. 2-2.
Eighty-ninth minute: Corner kick. Bodies everywhere. The ball bounced around the six-yard box like a pinball. Ethan reacted first, stabbing it home from three yards out. 3-2.
The away section went absolutely insane. Barcelona had stolen three points in the final ten minutes. Ethan had scored twice in seven minutes to complete the comeback.
In the stands, Diego Simeone could only shake his head in frustration. You could do everything right against Barcelona, defend perfectly for eighty minutes, and then Ethan Loki would find a way to break your heart.
Ethan's goal tally: 26 goals in 16 matches
December 18th - Copa del Rey
Barcelona rested several starters, including Ethan, for the Copa del Rey match against a third-division team. The youngsters handled it easily, winning 4-0. Lamine Yamal scored twice, showing why he'd finished third in the Ballon d'Or voting at just sixteen years old.
December 22nd - Barcelona 4-1 Sevilla
The final match before the Christmas break. Barcelona looked exhausted but professional. Ethan scored one and assisted two as Barcelona secured another three points heading into the holiday.
Ethan's goal tally: 27 goals in 17 matches
December 23rd - The Reality Check
Ethan sat in Dr. Martínez's office at the training facility, the sports psychologist he'd been seeing since before the first Clásico.
"You look exhausted," she said bluntly.
"Seven matches in twenty-one days. I am exhausted."
"How are you sleeping?"
"Four, maybe five hours a night. My mind won't shut off. I keep replaying matches, thinking about upcoming opponents, worrying about maintaining this goal-scoring pace."
"Twenty-seven goals in seventeen matches is unsustainable, you know that right?"
"I scored forty-three last season. At this pace, I'll hit sixty-four. That's what Flick asked for. That's what being the best in the world means."
Dr. Martínez leaned back, studying him. "Ethan, I want you to hear something important. You're twenty-five years old. You've won three Ballon d'Ors. You've achieved more than ninety-nine percent of professional footballers will achieve in their entire careers. But if you burn out—if you push yourself so hard that you get injured or mentally break—none of those achievements will matter."
"I can handle it."
"Can you? Because right now you're averaging a goal every fifty-three minutes of football. That's insane. That's unprecedented. But it's also unsustainable. Even Messi and Ronaldo in their primes took breaks, had off-days, managed their energy."
Ethan knew she was right. But he also knew what was coming—the return Clásico in March, the Champions League knockout rounds, the run-in for La Liga, the Copa del Rey. Every competition still in play. Every trophy still available.
"I have two weeks off for Christmas," Ethan said. "I'll rest then. Recharge. Come back fresh in January."
"Promise me you'll actually rest. Not just say you will and then spend the entire break training anyway."
"I promise."
He meant it. Probably.
Christmas Break - Home
Ethan and Sofia flew to Paris on December 24th to spend Christmas with their families. Ethan's parents had moved to a larger apartment in the suburbs—paid for by Ethan, though his father still insisted on working despite not needing to financially.
"It's not about the money," his father had explained. "It's about having purpose."
Ethan understood. Football gave him purpose. His father's job at the logistics company gave him the same thing.
Christmas dinner was at his parents' new place—his mother cooked her traditional French dishes, his father opened wine that cost more than Ethan's first car, and Marie brought her new boyfriend (a teacher named Laurent who seemed terrified to meet the three-time Ballon d'Or winner).
"So, Laurent," Ethan said, enjoying making the poor man squirm slightly, "you teach history?"
"Yes, at a lycée in the 16th arrondissement. European history, mainly."
"That's great. What do you think about the historical significance of Barcelona vs Real Madrid?"
Laurent laughed nervously. "I think it transcends sport, actually. It's about Catalonian identity versus Spanish centralism, about competing philosophies of football, about—"
"Ethan, stop terrorizing my boyfriend," Marie interrupted. "He's nervous enough already."
"I'm not terrorizing. I'm making conversation."
"You're using your 'I'm a famous footballer' voice. I can tell the difference."
Everyone laughed. These moments—being just Ethan, not Ethan Loki the superstar—were rare and precious.
Later that night, after dinner when everyone had migrated to the living room, Ethan's father pulled him aside.
"I want to talk to you about something," his father said quietly.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. But I've been watching you this season. Watching interviews. Following the matches. And I'm worried about you."
"Why?"
"Because you look like you're carrying the weight of the world. Twenty-seven goals in seventeen matches is incredible, but you also look exhausted. Stressed. Like you're not enjoying it anymore."
Ethan wanted to deny it, but his father knew him too well.
"The pressure is different now," Ethan admitted. "After winning the Ballon d'Or, everyone expects perfection. Every match. Every touch. If I go two games without scoring, the media questions whether I'm still the best. If Barcelona loses, it's my fault. The expectations are suffocating."
"Then breathe," his father said simply. "Remember why you started playing football. It wasn't for trophies or awards. It was because you loved it. When did that change?"
"I still love it."
"Do you? Because from the outside, it looks like you're grinding through matches rather than enjoying them."
His father was right. When was the last time Ethan had actually enjoyed a match? Not just won, but enjoyed the process of playing?
He couldn't remember.
"Take these two weeks," his father continued. "Rest. Actually rest. Spend time with Sofia. See friends. Be twenty-five years old. The football will be there when you get back."
"And if I come back rusty? If Real Madrid closes the gap?"
"Then you'll work harder and catch up. You're the best player in the world, Ethan. That doesn't change because you took two weeks to be human."
They hugged. Ethan felt something release in his chest—tension he'd been carrying for months without even realizing it.
New Year's Eve
Ethan and Sofia spent New Year's Eve at a private villa in the Swiss Alps—a gift from one of Ethan's sponsors. Just the two of them, no phones, no social media, no football.
Ils sont allés skier (avec prudence – le contrat d'assurance d'Ethan interdisait expressément les « sports d'hiver à risque », mais le ski de loisir était autorisé). Ils ont cuisiné ensemble. Ils ont regardé des films. Ils ont parlé des préparatifs de leur mariage prévu en juin 2025.
« As-tu déjà réfléchi à l'endroit où vous voulez vous marier ? » demanda Sofia alors qu'ils étaient assis près de la cheminée le soir du Nouvel An, regardant la neige tomber dehors.
« Un endroit intime. Privé. Juste la famille et les amis proches. »
"Pas au Camp Nou avec quatre-vingt-dix mille invités ?"
«Mon Dieu non. Ça ressemble à un cauchemar.»
« Et Monaco ? Là où tout a commencé pour vous ? »
Ethan y réfléchit. Monaco — là où il était devenu professionnel, là où il avait rencontré Mbappé, là où sa carrière avait véritablement commencé. Il y avait quelque chose de poétique là-dedans.
« J'adore cette idée », dit-il. « Monaco en juin. Une petite cérémonie. Cinquante personnes maximum. »
« Ta mère voudra inviter cinq cents personnes. »
"Alors on fera un compromis à deux cents."
Ils riaient, planifiant un avenir qui semblait lointain mais qui se rapprochait d'eux plus vite qu'ils ne l'imaginaient.
À minuit, tandis que des feux d'artifice illuminaient le ciel des Alpes et qu'ils s'embrassaient pour accueillir l'année 2025, Ethan ressentit quelque chose qu'il n'avait pas ressenti depuis des mois :
Paix.
Non pas cette soif insatiable de marquer toujours plus de buts, de gagner toujours plus de trophées, de faire taire les sceptiques. Juste la paix. Le contentement. Le bonheur.
Son père avait raison. Il devait se rappeler pourquoi il était tombé amoureux du football au départ. Non pas pour ce qu'il pouvait lui apporter, mais pour ce qu'il lui faisait ressentir.
Trois coups plus tard, l'avenir semblait clair :
Première étape : revenir à Barcelone en janvier, reposé, ressourcé et prêt à dominer la seconde moitié de la saison.
Deuxième étape : écraser le Real Madrid lors du Clásico retour au Camp Nou en mars. Prouver que le match nul d'octobre n'était qu'un coup de chance.
Troisième étape : tout gagner – la Liga, la Ligue des champions, la Coupe du Roi. Réaliser le triplé. Consolider sa légende comme le plus grand joueur de sa génération.
Mais pour l'instant, en ce réveillon du Nouvel An dans les Alpes suisses avec la femme qu'il aimait, Ethan s'autorisait simplement à être heureux.
La poursuite peut attendre demain.
Fin du chapitre 61
Statistiques de la saison (31 décembre 2024) :
Ethan Loki : 27 buts, 9 passes décisives en 17 matchs (toutes compétitions confondues) Kylian Mbappé : 24 buts, 7 passes décisives en 17 matchs (toutes compétitions confondues)
Classement de La Liga :
Barcelone - 43 points (14 victoires, 1 nul, 0 défaite) Real Madrid - 42 points (14 victoires, 0 nul, 1 défaite)
À suivre :
Janvier 2025 : Reprise des matchs de championnat Février : Début des huitièmes de finale de la Ligue des champions 16 mars : Barcelone - Real Madrid (Clásico retour)
Suite : Chapitre 62 - L'incendie de janvier
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