History Recap / BlueLockSaeItoshiIntroduction

At that same time at Blue Lock, Ego goes about explaining to Team Z (as well as the other 24 teams) how the First Selection will work, which is a Round-Robin tournament amongst each of the 5 strata groups. Wins being worth 3 points, ties being worth 1 point, and losses being 0 points. Isagi and company remain confused as to how their team will work since all 11 of them are forward strikers. However, Ego explains that the games will act as their new starting point where they will fall into roles depending on how they play at Blue Lock. One of which already happens with Iemon accepting the role of Team Z needing to have someone fill in as the goalie.

At a hotel in Japan, a football journalist named Nihei is seen holding an interview with Itoshi Sae, a famous Japanese midfield football player who's only 17 years old, and has been playing abroad in Europe for Spain's Real Madrid team. Nihei thanks Sae for taking some time out of his life for the interview, and asks if Sae's return to Japan means that Sae has decided to play for Japan. However, Sae remains uninterested stating that he'd rather die. That he would play with Germany's college students rather than the football players of his home country. Nihei tries to push further stating that Sae would easily be the representative for Japan given his skill, but Sae remains disinterested claiming that playing for Japan is not his dream. That his dream is to win the Champions League, and that it's obvious that such a case won't happen as a member of Team Japan.

Having enough of the interview, Sae gets up to leave while stating that no one in Japan is worth receiving his passes, and that he was born in the wrong country. Thus, Nihei's forced to accept that there's no one in Japan that has the talent to impress Sae. After departing the interview, Sae meets up with his manager, Girolain Davidi, who warns Sae that the recent interview is just going to make the media hate Sae. However, Sae doesn't care as the only reason he's returned to Japan is because his passport needs to be renewed. Suddenly, Sae's attention is brought to a conference run by the Japan Football Association going on in the hotel's event hall before a large audience.

The two spokespeople being Anri Teieri, and the JFA president, Hirotoshi Buratsuta. The latter of which is heard wrapping up the explanation of how they gathered up 300 exceptional strikers from around Japan for the Blue Lock project in order to create a true striker that will win them their first World Cup title. The reporters in the audience ask questions regarding if the project is truly worth it, especially if it's truly worth sacrificing the futures of 299 kids when it's not guaranteed that the birth of a true striker will result in a World Cup win. Hirotoshi struggles to answer, but Anri takes over making it clear that the Blue Lock project was made to fix Japan's broken football program. The reporters remain confused, which Anri states that it's all to create a "hero" for Japan's National Football.

Back at Blue Lock, Team Z remains in their room watching Ego on their wall monitor. Ego gets to explaining how the First Selection works, which starting a week from now, the 55 players of the Team V to Z stratum will be taking part in a 5 team round-robin. Wins are worth 3 points, Draws are worth 1 point, and Loses are worth 0 points. The rules being that of the 5 teams, only the top 2 will get to move on to the Second Selection while the players of the bottom 3 teams are kicked out of Blue Lock. The players of Team Z all question how a team made up of nothing but forward strikers is going to work, which Yudai Imamura pushes his Z teammate, Okuhito Iemon, to take on the goalie role for the team. However, Iemon accepts to play as goalie as he's someone who can't refuse when he's asked to do something. Team Z is left fighting over what positions they will be playing, which Isagi's left thinking to himself how this is supposed to work.

Ego explains that it's okay for a team to be all forwards as this is how the sport of foolball started from its roots and then developed from there. Thus, this is to be considered their starting point where all their knowledge of football will be fixed by having to start from scratch. The "starting from scatch" part catches Isagi's attention. Returning to the hotel, Anri continues her speech basically continuing where Ego left off explaining how Japan's football play has developed and evolved over the years. She also points out their efforts in the more recent World Cups, and that their efforts to push a great Belgium team into a corner in the most recent 2018 World Cup showed the world that Japan is getting closer and is now a force to be reckoned with. Thus, Anri states that they must now take the very last step necessary to reach the World Cup title, and that doing so will mean that they will live up to the dream of their predecessors that dreamed of the glory to win the World Cup. Thus, Anri proclaims that it's time for the Japanese football dream to be revived.

Back to Ego, he states to his strikers that they must throw out the "common sense" that they know, and must now cram a new mentality into their brains. He reminds them that for Japan to become the best in the world, it's not about the teamwork of 11 players, but about the hero that's among them. Ego reminds them of certain professional football players, and how their sheer presence changed the sport forever. That defensive systems were created for the sole purpose of stopping them, and that these heroes created ever-newer tactics in order to overcome the systems trying to stop them. Ego states that the sport of football is based around one player of one country that was able to change the world. Returning to Anri, she further explains that Japan's football will be entering a new stage. A stage that doesn't involve the adults who lost sight of their predecessors' football dream, but a stage that involves the star that will be born from 300 high-school students.

Anri asks the reporters and audience before her if they have the courage to look at their new dream for the World Cup, which Sae remains stunned in surprise by what he's witnessing. Meanwhile, Ego smiles before his strikers asking if they can prepare themselves to compete for the World Cup. The both of them then say at once that everyone at Blue Lock is primed to push for it. Sae remains stunned silent as Anri wraps up the press conference, much to the anger of the audience unable to understand what's going on. Davidi reminds Sae that they don't have much time before the flight back to Spain leaves, but Sae suddenly orders to cancel it, much to Davidi's confusion. Sae states that he will stick around to see the foward that will be born in Japan. Meanwhile, Isagi remains determined to be the last one standing at Blue Lock.

The 4th StoryArc of the ''Blue Lock'' manga series, which centers on Sae Itoshi's introduction. Sae's a star Japanese football player who's been playing overseas since he remains disinterested in playing for Japan's lackluster team. However, after witnessing Anri's JFA speech about pushing Japan's football further through the Blue Lock project, he becomes interested in sticking around to see the results of said project. Meanwhile, Ego explains the start of Blue Lock's First Selection where Teams V to Z will be taking part in a 5 team round-robin to see which 2 teams score the most points to move on to the Second Selection.