There are many who believe that Oliver Atom was left without legs at the end of ‘Champions towards the world cup’the fourth television adaptation of the manga Yoichi Takahashi ‘Captain Tsubasa’, which in Spain we know as ‘Champions: Oliver and Benji’, in an episode that supposedly aired only once and that raised enormous controversy. Incredible, did they really dare to do something like that in a children’s series?
It is impossible not to be drawn to want to believe that this really happened but the problem is that it is a lie. The myth was that Oliver woke up in the last episode of ‘Champions to the World Cup’, without legs in a hospital bedimplying that his entire career as a footballer had been a dreamsince an accident as a child had left him in that state.
An insane turn that went even further than that of ‘Los Serrano’ and that gave rise to several montages in video who try to be as convincing as possible to support it. Below you have one.
How it was forged
It is easy to understand why there are people who are so impressed when they see this that they take it as true, and it is too shocking as not to do it. The problem is that the video itself invites us to think of little more than a conspiracy to score a goal for us.
Its origin is in Latin America, spreading like wildfire through other Spanish-speaking countries, and is supported by a scene of Oliver in the hospital whose origin we will see below:
In it minute 1 and 42 seconds From episode 16 of ‘Champions towards the World Cup’ (‘Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002’ or ‘Supercampeones: Road to the World Cup’ in Latin America) you can see Oliver lying in a hospital bed due to an injury that affects his shoulder .
To that they added the claim of a montage of the character without legs and crazy comments without any basis about the supposed controversy when they broadcast it for the only time – it is less credible that they have continued to broadcast it normally and you want to sell it as a find – and now have an urban legend ready to serve.
The real ending of ‘Champions’
Everything sounded so shocking that the theory soon spread as the true ending of the series, especially in Spanish-speaking countries. What didn’t take long to arrive were the memes mocking this gigantic madness. That didn’t stop many from continuing to consider it good, and it sounds so good… Let’s check what was really happening in episode 52 of ‘Champions towards the World Cup’, the last of the series:
At the end of ‘Champions towards the World Cup’ we see the Japanese team about to face the Brazilian teama dream come true for Oliver who at that time was playing in Spain in a team equivalent to what today would be FC Barcelona, while Mark Lenders was in Italy and Benji Price in Germany.
Of course, the epilogue focuses on the clash against Brazil whose result we never knew and which It wasn’t part of the manga. Besides, the manga author himself denied in an interview given to El Comercio the myth that Oliver is left without legs. This is what he said about it:
“I found out about that legend a short time ago. But those scenes that went viral are not real, they are just jokes that are part of a myth. It did not arise from my story.”
It is therefore confirmed that Oliver Atom never lost his legs. It is true that Takahashi had already played with unexpected elements such as Julian Ross’s heart problems (all of us fans remember that episode that ended with his heartbeat…), but this was going too far, especially as a possible end to the series.
And I say possible because it is still published today. ‘Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun’ with Oliver aiming to make the Japanese Olympic team.
