The story begins with Japans 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 worlds greatest egotist striker.