hi just wanted to say that i love love love your take 2 fic i was grinning so wide and doing the sickos yes yes yes bit the entire time i was reading it, thank YOUUUU for writing!!
Thank you! I kind of felt self conscious about the fic because I wasn't sure it was good enough to post, so I'm really happy to hear about people enjoying it! <3
The men's football RPF fandom follows an extremely predictable cycle: when it's a World Cup year, things go nuts. New fans come in, dormant accounts reactivate, everyone goes around looking for the guys they see on their screen and get kind of confused that in the great minds of our AO3 writers they are with completely different guys. Most RPF is about club pairings, because these are the people they're with most of the time, but there's something special about the national team. Weeks when years happen, or something like that.
I love a rec list and those have kind of fallen out of vogue, so here's a very short list of my favorite national team-centric fics over the years, for the folks who're interested in the RPFs of World Cups past. Obligatory reminder to keep church and state separated, keep fic out of the public eye, and lock your shit down when you feel like you want to take a turn. Happy reading, welcome to hell!
Calon Onest, Calon Lân by ladytelemachus (LJ, deleted)
Wales: Wayne Hennessey and Aaron Ramsey
This is not a World Cup fic, because Wales have not qualified for a World Cup in forever. This is a fic that is kind of about that, and kind of about language, and kind of about the weight of a nascent national team, and kind of about English colonialism, short and sweet and perfect.
all these things that i've done by @stickmarionette
Argentina (World Cup 2010): Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi
So what if Leo plays within himself sometimes? It doesn't mean that he forgets to pass. He dribbles because he can.
Diego, of all people, should understand. Leo, Diego the manager and the motherland.
If you're new this will sound wild to you, but once upon a time Argentina hated Leo Messi. The federation took forever to call him up. The sports media called him the Catalan and spent half the time judging him for not showing up for his country the way he did for his club, FC Barcelona. Enter the one guy who could possibly get it: Diego Maradona. This fic is the raw nerve of that 4-0 loss to Germany and the desperation of knowing you've got to carve a path and haven't got the time. Little did we know.
Invictus, or, On the Plus Side, You Now Possess the Most Sought-After Phone Number in Spain by synaesthetical (AO3)
Spain (World Cup 2010): Victor Valdes, Pepe Reina, and Iker Casillas
Víctor Valdés is at his first international tournament and a bench player for the first time in years. On most days, he's fine with that. On the days that he has to deal extensively with Pepe Reina's lunacy and Iker Casillas's martyrdom, he wishes he had gone windsurfing instead of to the World Cup.
You have to be kind of insane to want to be a goalkeeper. Fortunately, Spain has no shortage of insane people. Our cast of characters: deadpan sarcastic Victor Valdes, who regularly had panic attacks before games and dropped off the face of the earth the moment he retired; Pepe Reina, official court jester of the 2010 Spain national team; and Iker Casillas, lord, savior, legend, talisman, man who cries a lot. Victor's voice in this is snarky and stinging, Pepe gives better than he gets, and I could read about their team shenanigans forever.
The Secret of Sopwell House by @heyyjulien
England (Euro 2004): Jamie Carragher/Gary Neville
The national team is trying to qualify for the Euros 2004, when the FA suspends Jamie Carragher from the squad under dubious circumstances. They make two crucial mistakes: They forget to tell Jamie before he makes his way to the England training camp. And they underestimate Gary Neville.
And now for something entirely different: Carraville fic in disguise. In real life, Gary Neville attempted to organize a players' strike on behalf of Rio Ferdinand. This is an AU where he does all that for then-club rival and current IRL partner in crime punditry Jamie Carragher. Everyone's voices are pitch-perfect, from our leads to David Beckham's and Sir Alex Ferguson's. The atmosphere really makes this fic: the pressure cooker of the England camp, the period-accurate abuse and homophobia, the *gestures* everything that's going on inside GNev's head.
The Cynics by rainhat (AO3)
Italy (World Cup 1982): Antonio Cabrini/Paolo Rossi
Paolo took a survivalist approach to lying and secrecy. He was good at both, and didn't think a great deal about either. The lie about Antonio was proving hard to keep so far.
Paolo Rossi was theeee failed wonderkid flop striker. Antonio Cabrini, Juventus defender, was so beautiful tabloids called him Italy's boyfriend. I have no idea how to talk about this fic, but literally every single sentence in this fic is perfect. The restraint, the economy of emotion, the quiet tension, the weight. I don't even know.
if someone would write a genuine hockey au for ntbts, here are objective truths:
Matt is a goalie and he gives Ilya Bryzgalov style interviews
Jay is a skill player who can't fight for shit and needs to be protected, he's either a winger or center and constantly gets injured
Matt gets into fights for Jay which confuses everyone since goalies do not fight
Matt is in a Dougie Hamilton situation where he's the only person who has read a book on his team which makes him the weirdo
Jay can't read
They play for their childhood team (the Leafs) and dream of winning the cup. They never win the cup.
Matt is a horrible trash talker but a likeable person
Jay is quiet and seemingly controlled during games but a psycho behind your back and mean off the ice which makes all his teammates for Team Canada hate him. He dives and plays dirty.
They move in together as rookies and never move out, it's not really acknowledged why (remember when Claude Giroux straight up started co-parenting with Danny Briere and no one cared? Like that)
"We made the show ten years ago and it still feels like yesterday sometimes. We’ll blink and another ten are gone! Eighty years Matt. That’s nothing. And the second half is going to fucking suck!”
No one says anything. Jared and Matt are just looking at him, a bit stunned. They seem to decide not to argue with Jay right now. Because there is nothing to argue, Jay is right. Aging is inevitable.
“Okay. So. You are having a midlife crisis,” Matt says carefully.
I'll post it here so I can re-post it in a couple of years. Klopp as national team manager is not going to end well and is probably going to ruin his reputation
rpf is good because real life people are crazy insane and do and say crazy insane things and you dont get an explanation for why. they themselves probably dont know. it's amazing.
yousharknotpass
pixelskylines
romaincrisis
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
