World's Best

Inside the locker room the squad roars over its halftime lead, Igarashi insisting they truly could win and Nanase echoing the praise for Nagi, Rin, and the rest. Aryu keeps reenacting his last-gasp save to Tokimitsu's admiration and Raichi's irritation, while Niko quietly plans his second-half defending. Hiori tosses Chigiri a bottle and checks on his legs, which are fine, and Reo lobs Nagi a towel, reminding him he is capable of far more. Baro waits on the bench, silent and locked in.

Anri enters with congratulations, followed by Ego, who calls the celebration to order for the tactical review. His opening question is blunt: why were they able to score? He explains that all their prepared strategies faltered against the generation's finest, and that only the tight back-and-forth passing between Rin and Isagi cracked the defense. Pressed on why he kept Isagi close, Rin admits he could not clear the Iron Wall Quartet alone and used Isagi as a sacrificial lamb to open the attack. Ego praises the improvisation, then asks Isagi whether he minds the role. Isagi answers firmly that he does; he always meant to score himself. Ego approves, noting every player here casts himself as the story's lead, and that shared ego is exactly what earned the lead. He cautions that the second half will not flow so easily, tells them they have achieved nothing yet, and orders them to keep attacking to the final whistle with no changes to lineup or formation, since one protagonist is all a team needs.

The players take the message to heart. Isagi reflects that Blue Lock does not win as a team but wins by using the team, each man chasing his own goals, and resolves to push harder like Rin. Rin steps into the corridor, turning Sae's words over in his mind and slipping into the past.

He remembers being six while his eight-year-old brother dismantled opponents and scored with ease. When reporters swarmed the young prodigy, Sae snapped at them to get lost and walked off, Rin clinging to his arm and copying him as he stuck out his tongue. Over ice-cream pops afterward, Rin won a prize and Sae did not; crunching his losing stick, Sae declared that anyone squandering luck on trivial prizes lacks what it takes to become the world's best striker, the only thing that matters to him. At a later match Rin sat on the touchline with his toys, marveling that his brother never lost. When Sae launched a pass no one could reach, Rin darted onto the pitch and buried it himself. Sae hushed his annoyed teammates, walked over, and told his little brother to play football at his side, promising Rin could become the best after him. Rin, enthralled, agreed.

Blue Lock revels in its first-half lead, but Ego cools the room, praising their teamwork while warning the match is far from won. Rin then flashes back to age six, revealing that Sae was already hailed a genius at eight and that the brothers were once close, Sae caring and Rin adoring. When a young Rin stole a goal from Sae's untouchable pass, Sae invited him to play football together and told him he could grow into the best after himself.

"World's Best" is the 123rd chapter overall and the second collected in Volume 15, part of the U-20 Arc. It was dramatized within Episode 33 of the anime and first appeared in Japan on March 17, 2021.