Balshazzar Bel-Dagon

Balshazzar Bel-Dagon is the inaugural captain of the Ashtaroth Eagles, currently The Hexarchy's national football team.

Personal Life

A native of Asshyria, Balshazzar is a native of the city of Dagon, where his family was originally one of a group of local city rulers before joining the former tribes of Nippur and facilitating their settlement west of the city. The second son of the family, he was passed over early on for succeeding his father for leadership of the city due to his general lack of ability to rule the region. However, he did show exceptional talent in sports, and with managing teams during uncertain times.

He currently holds a degree in political science from the University of Kobol in 1688, and played for the university's still-nascent football team. Under family pressure, he then attended the University of Asshyria at Ashtaroth for the same field. In an act of spite, instead of accepting funding from his family, he instead paid for his studies through a football scholarship and played for Ashtaroth's university football team, making a name for himself as a strong and competent player. (He later dropped out for reasons mentioned below.)

About halfway into his studies in 1689, he was scouted by the Ashtaroth authorities during a notable university match in which the team won a crushing victory against his very home city. As it turned out, the authorities were in a bid to create a national-level football team, by creating a regional team strong enough to qualify to be the official football team for the Hexarchy as a whole. As the year progressed, Balshazzar decided to drop out about halfway into his studies to launch his professional football career, when it became exceedingly clear that he would never be in a position to use his studies primarily for his own benefit.

Instead of going home, he took up the Asshyrian authorities' offer to immediately join the Ashtaroth Eagles, causing a fallout with his family that would last until the early 1694, when he began to succeed in his professional career and rose to be a worthy captain for the team. Upon the team's spectacular win in the Six Nations Football League national tournament, he rose to national acclaim as a football player. It wasn't long before he began to pull a salary almost as great as his siblings in politics were making, whereupon his family once again initiated contact and attempted to reconcile past grievances.

After joining the Eagles in 1689, he continued to tour domestically with the team for the next five years until its debut in the 2021 FMF World Cup qualifiers. He is currently unmarried and without children, and according to inside sources this is unlikely to change before the 2021 FMF World Cup is over.

Balshazzar keeps his own religious beliefs largely to himself, although publicly he still adheres to the native religion practiced throughout most of the interior regions of The Hexarchy. This being said, he exercises little apparent faith in his home city's own eponymous local deity, and instead has been known to state that faith is a matter of action, rather than hope. This belief still propels him forward as a leader both on and off the football field.

Football Career

It was largely for this reason that, when the Astaroth Eagles formed, he was chosen as the team captain. The team was built around his exceptional skill in acting as a strong balancing agent between the center field and forward play styles, which contributed to the Eagles' flexible 5-2-3/5-3-2 formation at any stage of the game. By acting simultaneously as the forward, center fielder, and as the team captain, he's able to direct the team's offensive strategy from the front. It was thanks to the skills he quickly built in this position that the team rose to win the Six Nations Football League and become The Hexarchy's official national team.

2021 FMF World Cup

Qualifiers

Debut (vs. Normark)

His first international debut was the opening round of the 2021 FMF World Cup qualification, where the team, in capacity as his nation's football team, played the first of two rounds against Normark. Due to the team's first time traveling outside their country, nervousness contributed to a loss of two goals in the first half to one. During the second half, the team made an epic recovery, scoring two goals while the defense recovered and held the line, with the ball being under the Eagles' control for most of the remainder of the game. The tie-breaking goal was scored within the last five minutes of the game, giving the country's first major win.

Along with the rest of his team, he received a national medal, along with a congratulatory letter along with a healthy cash purse from the Praetor himself for a strong showing during the team's first match abroad, citing the team's significant contribution to national pride and strong morale among their countrymen.

Subsequent Matches

His strong leadership of the team contributed to narrow wins versus other established teams, starting with a 2-1 win against Wechua during their first qualifier match. This was followed by a similar win (2-1) against the Dark Berry Islands some weeks later.

The team's fourth match was with Lostisland. Unfortunately, the string of narrow victories the Eagles enjoyed to this point ended here. The Lostislander defense was airtight, and the Eagles' offensive strategy made no significant headway throughout the game, with only a single goal being scored during the second half. Unfortunately, the opposing team scored two, resulting in a narrow loss and a drop outside the qualifying spot until the next match.