This manga is awesome. I just happen to pick it up by chance... and ended up reading 17 volumes in 2 days. If it weren't for school, I would be at Vol20 by now. It's just that good. Especially the later volumes. I'm excited to read more. The translation is excellent, very funny and witty.

... Last updated on April 20th, 2009, 8:11pm

Translated up to 173 so far, and is an amazing manga. Literally, amazing. However, personally, I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have, simply because I like it when there's at least a hint of romance somewhere.

I guess I'm very ignorant when I think of describing this manga as a... "sausage-fest" sometimes. :< Just too many guys with no girlfriends. I mean friendship is great, but...shouldn't they be at that age when they want to...erm...be around females? Guess not.

Final thing I'd like to point out - timducan1's comment made my day. With hardwork you can't better player indeed.

This is my only favorite football manga. I don't like Captain Tsubasa, it doesn't make me feel happy like this one. Hard work can let you be a better player, but who has that strong energy like Shou? [practice at school, in the select team, even at night]
And in this manga, I find wonderful friendship [between Shou and Mizuno; Tsubasa and Shou; Takki and Shou;...]

I have mixed feelings about this series. I didn't particularly enjoy whistle but I didn't hate it either. The anime was alright and same goes for the manga. The main char wasn't that interesting to begin with.
If you like a solid soccer manga, Captain Tsubasa is worth checking out instead.

Not exactly breath-holding, but interesting nonetheless. You can see where the plot leads to and the character development is somehow patchy -expected from a sports manga-, but it never sets too much astray from the main plot and keeps a focused and reasonable scenario (unlike Tsubasa). Expecting players to become much overpowered though, but the storyline is nice to follow for now.

If you like football and got a bad impression from the anime adapatation, get rid of the prejudice and give this a shot; it's worth it.

Nah it's pretty good actually. For a sports manga it's pretty good. Makes more sense then Captain Tsubasa(this is overrated), eyeshield 21 and PoT.

@timduncan1: Well... its a pretty nice essage in the manga, and of course.. hardwork can get you pretty far.

Manga's awesome ^^ I enjoy it alot :3 and laa its guuuud

overrated manga
its like naruto
" i want stronger"
with hardwork you cant better player
its boring

probaly one of the best soccer manga ....ever!! lol =] it touches me <3
good art
good plot
good action lol
but the bad thing is it soo hard 2 find ,i got to vol 16 cause it realesed that much in the us and couldnt find anymoreT_T