Soccer imagines

•Leon Goretzka•

By imagines-footballers

3 Missed Calls from: Leon

I sighed, clicking my phone off. It seemed that timezones and distance were determined to cause Leon and I as much pain as possible. Unlike most girlfriends or wives of footballers I couldn't trot around following Leon around the globe. Leon understood that, we were in the same boat after all.
"Put the phone down Y/N and pay attention." I looked up to see the team manager glaring at me. Reluctantly, I placed my phone back in my bag and paid attention. I didn't want to frustrate my manager more, everyone was under enough stress already. The Women's World Cup wasn't a big deal to a lot of people but to us it was.
"We're 2-1 down and our goal was due to poor defending. We cannot count on them to defend poorly, we must attack! Schmidt, stay at the back and don't drift into midfield. Lotzen, it's all very well creating play in midfield but you must get it into the end third. Y/N, use your pace and beat your marker. Don't let me down girls, we haven't trained so hard to let it all go to waste. Get out on that field and do Germany proud." Our manager preached. At the end of the speech we stood up, straightening our kits and double checking our boots, and started to walk out of the dressing room. Our manager patted us all on the back in way of encouragement.
When we walked out of the tunnel the rest of the team looked around to wave to their families causing me to feel a tad deflated. My family couldn't make it to this particular game and Leon had such a busy schedule that I hadn't bothered inviting him to the game. No point in making myself even sadder, right?
We took our places on the pitch and the whistle blew.
-
The Colombian women's team fought hard and it seemed like every time I got hold of the ball that I was aggressively tackled. At first I accepted it because, hey it's football. But after a ferocious tackle from their centreback left me holding my knee and crying out in pain it looked like myself and my teammates had enough. While I sat on the floor, tears welling in my eyes, our captain was having a, how shall I put it, heated discussion with the referee and centreback in question.
The medics rushed over and began prodding and poking my knee and discussing possibilities with each other I began to look around the stadium. As I was doing so I saw someone rush onto the pitch. At first I didn't recognise the face but as soon as I heard their voice it was clear who it was.
"Y/N, Y/N. Shit, I saw what happened. Baby how are you feeling?" Leon rushed out his words, kneeling down beside me and stroking my hair back. I leaned into him and sighed. He was here.
"Look Y/N, everything seems fine but you need to come off the pitch for a couple of minutes. Managers and medics orders." The medic smiled. I nodded, knowing that I was going to get a tactics talk from the manager and advice for the medics. Leon stood up and offered me his hands to pull myself up with, which  gladly accepted. I slung my arm over Leon's shoulder and limped off the pitch as the game resumed.
"Nice to see you Leon but as sweet and romantic your gesture to Y/N is, you need to go back to the stands." Our manager spoke softly, shaking Leon's hand.
Leon nodded and turned to me. "Good luck baby, you'll do great. Give 'em hell and score those goals like everyone knows you can." He pressed his chapped lips to my forehead and squeezed my hand before slowly walking back to the stands.
"OK Y/L/N, time for more tactics...."