World Cup Challenge 2026

It was not yet a commotion, more like an uneasy anxiety rippling through the hotel, and yet the first members of staff started to notice.

“Everything alright, B?” someone piped up.

“Yes, everything’s fine”, Bukayo smiled, although it did not reach his eyes, and his brisk step exuded quite the opposite. He hurried through the dining hall that served as hangout during leisure time, and stopped at a row of occupied armchairs pushed together. He bent down over one of them, and whispered something in the ear of its occupant.

Declan frowned, visibly trying to make sense of Bukayo’s words. “You…what?”

Bukayo sighed, and impatiently tapped his shoulder. “I don’t even know”, he sighed, voice full of exasperation. “Just…come with me, please! Alone.”

The last word was squarely aimed at Anthony, who was already halfway out of his own chair. Deflated, he sank back down.

“Sorry, Arsenal-business I guess”, Declan joked, although his grin wavered slightly when Bukayo turned around abruptly, and stomped off again.

He followed him through the hotel, down hallways and up a flight of stairs until they reached one of the many identical doors of their current base. When Eze saw them approach, he burst out laughing, although it was clear it was not from joy.

“Noni, I am so fucking serious! Open the bloody door!” he barked, and emphasised his words with a few punches against the sturdy wood with his free hand. From Ezri’s expression it was clear it was not the first attempt.

“This is a fucking joke!” Eze laughed when no answer came from the other side, and threw up his arms as much as the plate of pasta in his hands allowed.

“He’s here”, Ezri said to the door, and rapped his finger against it a few times.

This time, an answer came. “Dec?”

Three sets of eyes in varying stages of baffle- and resentment landed on Declan, whose ears turned as red as his sunburnt nose in reaction.

“Erm…yes”, he answered. “Everything okay in there?”

“Yeah…”, Noni’s voice sounded muffled through the door, and, after a short pause: “No.”

Declan blinked. The other three were still staring at him, and he pushed his shoulders back. “Could we…could we come in?”

“No!” Noni exclaimed, and before anyone could react: “Only you!”

Eze shook his head. “I am his friend!” he hissed, and looked at Declan with eyes full of reproach. “Why would he want to talk to you and not me?”

Declan frowned, evidently taking his words as a slight. “Maybe he needs a team leader…his captain”, he said haughtily, grabbed the plate and the cutlery from Eze’s hands, and stood in front of the door.

“Okay, just me then”, he said loudly.

“B also is his captain”, Eze griped, clearly not convinced.

Declan ignored him. “You can open the door, the others are stepping back”, he said.

“Promise?”

Declan threw them all a pointed glance, and one after the other, the three retreated a few steps. “Yes, I promise, Noni.”

A few moments passed, and then the door unlocked with a soft click. Quickly, Declan pushed the door until it was open enough to slip in, and immediately shut it back again.

Like Declan, Noni had not bothered with the wardrobe, and his belongings were strewn in a wide circle that covered almost the entire floor around the open suitcase at the foot of his bed. He was waiting next to it, and stepped towards Declan as soon as the door was closed again.

“Thank god”, he said, and grabbed the plate. He sat down at the small table under the television mounted to the wall, and dug into the cold pasta.

“My head felt like it was splitting apart when we came here”, he explained between two huge bites. “This is my first real meal since we’ve arrived.”

Declan watched him as he devoured the plate, and slowly sank down in the other chair. “And now you’re…fine?”

Noni nodded, though his eyes could not meet Declan’s. “Yes, all okay. The medical team says I can play.”

“So you don’t need my help?”

“You already helped me”, Noni answered, and a first blush spread over his cheeks. 

Declan frowned, and threw a glance over his shoulder. “Look, whatever this is between you and Eze and…”

“There’s nothing between us!” Noni said sharply, and Declan’s eyebrows rose over his forehead.

“I just can’t see him right now”, Noni mumbled into his pasta.

“Why?” Declan asked, honestly puzzled. 

The fork clattered onto the plate, and Noni buried his head in his hands. “Because I took the pill” he mumbled, and Declan had to lean forward to understand him. 

When he grasped what Noni was talking about, he laughed, and bent sideways to get a glimpse at his lap.

“So? I don’t think it’s working to be honest.”

Noni huffed. “It is working! My headache and the nausea is gone. It’s just…” He broke off, grabbed his fork, and turned it around in his hand before he took a big breath. “The doctors explained it before I swallowed the pill. The…stuff that happens to your dick is only a side effect. Nothing’s going to happen down there unless you’re actually horny.”

Declan waited but that was the end of Noni’s explanation.

“And?”

Noni shrugged. He scraped the remains of the sauce together with the rest of the pasta, and threw Declan a pointed glance through his bangs. “And I can’t be around Ebere right now.”

A few seconds of awkward silence filled the room. Then, Declan’s jaw dropped.

“Are you fucking serious?” he exclaimed, and jumped up.

Noni flinched, and all colour drained from his face. “Quiet!” he hissed, and his eyes darted towards the door.

“You can’t be around Eze?” Declan hissed back. “But you can be around me?”

Noni shrugged again. “Yeah. So what?”

“So what?” Declan echoed, and his voice rose as high as their current altitude. “So you thought you’d call the ugliest bloke on the team or what?”

“What? No! It’s not that…” Noni tried to interject but Declan was not listening to him.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, and glared at Noni. “I can’t bloody believe it! So when I remind you of Eze at the end of the last training, when he took off his shirt, and his chest was all glistening in the sun and you could see every ab and he hugged you, you are going to pop a tent the size of the Azteca?”

“Of course I’m not” Noni snapped, although his voice also rose to suspicious heights.

For a few seconds, they stared at each other. Then, Noni slowly crossed one leg over the other and pulled his chair closer to the table as Declan burst out laughing.

“Fuck you Dec” Noni muttered, his face burning up with shame. Declan did not answer because he was too busy scrolling through his phone. When he had found what he was looking for, he turned the screen with a triumphant grin.

“Don’t!” Noni exclaimed, and shielded his eyes from the photo of Eze after the match against Panama, having lost his shirt, his arms around his teammates and a big smile on his face. “Put this away! It takes forever to go down again once it’s up.”

Declan snorted, and plopped down in his chair again. “This is the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard about myself. And I’m a football player! Why couldn’t you have asked B? Or Ezri?”

When Noni pulled his hands away from his face, there was badly hidden desperation in his expression. “How do you think that would go? ‘Yes, B can come in but not Eze! Under no circumstances!’ It’s just…easier to explain away if it’s you.”

Declan rolled his eyes. “Right! And you couldn’t risk Harry either, I guess? That fivehead is just too sexy to risk…”

“I wanted a friend!” Noni yelled, tears swimming in his eyes, and Declan’s mouth snapped shut. 

A sharp knock interrupted the following silence. Eze’s voice was muffled by the wall but his irritation was audible nonetheless. “What’s going on in there?”

Declan’s gaze softened. “I’m sorry”, he muttered before he turned around in the chair, and addressed the closed door. “Everything’s okay. We’ll be in here for a while, you don’t have to wait for us. I’ll explain it later.”

This time, the voices were too muffled to understand anything, and soon they were engulfed in silence once more.

“Also Harry’s dressing room is literally the very last one on earth I want this story to ever leak into” Noni muttered, his eyes suspiciously glassy, and shoved the empty plate away. 

“You know he wouldn’t blab” Declan said but Noni’s thoughts were clearly elsewhere.

“He thinks I don’t see it but they’ve been playing more chess since the start of this shit. They’re calling each other too, at night. I can hear it through the wall. And during the day it’s all ‘Michael this’, ‘Michael that’, can’t get a word in edgewise. You know we’re almost the same age? But he is Michael and I’m just stupid little Noni to him.”

Declan shook his head. “Have you ever asked him? I mean, what if it is the other way around? He calls Olise because…”

With a huff, Noni waved Declan’s remark aside. He shuffled around in his chair, and awkwardly bent backwards to grab his phone from the window sill.

“Can we change the subject?” he asked, his voice suddenly firm again.

Declan blinked again, then shrugged. He looked around the room until he saw the remote on the nightstand. “How long is this supposed to last?” he asked as he grabbed the gadget, and sat down on Noni’s bed with his back against the wall.

Noni pulled a face. “Four hours max, according to the doctors. So…two hours left at most.” He turned around in his chair to glance up at the television.

Declan snorted, and picked up one of the pillows. “Come on! I promise I won’t gawk.”

With a new blush on his cheeks, Noni quickly shuffled over, and sat down next to Declan with the pillow placed firmly in his lap. “Thanks. For…for everything.”