Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Higuchi. The series was published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump from March 1998 to October 2002. He transfers from Musashinomori School to Sakura Fahita. Junior High School for better hopes to make the soccer team, since he never got a game at his old school due to his small stature.

Yūko Katori, his teacher, introduces him as a former star of the famed Musashinomori team, causing his classmates to be wrongly ecstatic. The series was published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump from March 9, 1998, to October 21, 2002. Shogakukan’s Ura Sunday manga website on September 26, 2016. The manga went on hiatus in April 2019 due to Higuchi’s health issues.

A 39-episode anime television series adaptation aired in Japan on Animax from May 5, 2002, to February 3, 2003. A stage play adaptation was announced in February 2016 for a late August to early September release. Scott Campbell and Holly Ellingwood of Active Anime have remarked that the art is clear since all the “line and detail has obvious care and attention given to it, resulting in well-managed visuals for a well-flowing read. Sho’s character development as the readers “see him strive against so much to obtain what he worked for is uplifting.