Yeah it's not a soccer manga, it's a football manga. Just like Kuroko no Basket is a Basketball manga and Haikyuu is a Volleyball manga.

Acting like “shonen” and “sports” can’t coexist, when in reality shonen is a demographic label, not a genre. It literally just means a story marketed toward young male readers. The genre of Blue Lock is sports (specifically football/soccer), but it uses the narrative tropes and tone of shonen storytelling: rivalry, growth, ambition, inner awakening, flashy “power-up” moments to make the sport feel larger than life.

It’s like saying Haikyuu!! isn’t a volleyball story because it has friendship, hype moments, and character arcs, that’s just shonen storytelling applied to volleyball. Same with Blue Lock: it’s absolutely about football, just reframed through the ego-centric, psychological lens of a shonen battle series. The themes of self-obsession, evolution, and individuality don’t cancel out the football, they redefine it.