The story begins with Japan’s elimination from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which prompts the Japanese Football Union to start a programme scouting high school players who will begin training in preparation for the 2022 Cup. Isagi Youichi, a forward, receives an invitation to this programme soon after his team loses the chance to go to Nationals because he passed to his less-skilled teammate – who missed – without trying to make the game-changing goal by himself.

Their coach will be Ego Jinpachi, who intends to “destroy Japanese loser football” by introducing a radical new training regimen: isolate 300 young forwards in a prison-like institution called “Blue Lock” and put them through rigorous training aimed at creating “the world’s greatest egotist striker.”