Chapter 102
***
Meanwhile, around that time.
[Union Berlin's Park Chan-hyuk steals Shinji Kagawa's debut-goal celebration….]
Japan began talking about Park Chan-hyuk stealing Shinji Kagawa's debut-goal celebration.
A Japanese right-wing group had picked a fight with Union Berlin.
Their claim was that, because Park Chan-hyuk was Korean, he was discriminating against Japanese players.
[Our manager…. He just really loves stealing celebrations.]
(A compilation of Park Chan-hyuk stealing celebrations.gif)
└ Is this Union Berlin's manager? wwwwwwww
└ A manager who celebrates more than the players wwwwwwwww
But Union Berlin's fans immediately disproved the controversy.
They showed every instance of Park Chan-hyuk stealing a celebration up to that point.
The biggest victim had been Yannick Voigt, but Korean player Son Hong-min had also had plenty stolen from him.
└ What was the reporter thinking when he wrote this article?
└ It's obvious the reporter knows nothing about football wwww
└ Japan should learn from this. Japanese coaches should also challenge themselves to work overseas, like Park Chan-hyuk.
The anti-Japanese controversy quickly died down after a photo of Park Chan-hyuk sitting on the bench was released, and
the reporter who had written the article without properly looking into the matter was now being showered with ridicule instead.
***
[Union Berlin win 2–0 away at Hertha Berlin.]
The derby ended with Shinji Kagawa's goal.
[A glimpse of the future of Korea-Japan football. Son Hong-min and Shinji Kagawa score one goal each to lead their team to victory.]
└ Kyaa, lol. It's great seeing Asians performing in the Bundesliga.
└ It's even better that the two players don't overlap positionally.
└ Huh? There aren't any players whose positions overlap at all?
└ Well, there are some, but those players feel more like backups than starters.
└ From the start, Park Chan-hyuk declared that he had paid attention to positions when signing players because of the potential friction between Korea and Japan.
└ Wow, lol. So he discovered players like that in the middle of all this? Park Chan-hyuk is insane.
The match ended in a 2–0 victory for Union Berlin, and countless comments praising the players from their respective countries poured in from Korea and Japan.
[Is Europe afraid of the development of Asian football?]
└ Hahahahaha, fuck, lol. Isn't the reporter a little too excited?
└ I told my European friend about this article, and he went, “Does Asia even develop?”
└ But Korean football really is developing quickly, yeah.
└ At this rate, could we really recreate the miracle of reaching the semifinals?
└ If the players developing at Union Berlin grow properly, it might be possible…?
└ Honestly, football is a manager's game, so I guess it depends on who takes charge.
└ Can't we bring Park Chan-hyuk in?
└ I heard he isn't interested in managing the national team.
└ He's doing whatever he wants at Union Berlin right now, but if he became the national-team manager, there'd probably be a lot of shitty situations.
And judging by the fact that they had even published an article that was half out of its mind, they seemed to be in a good mood.
‘Now is the time……?’
While peeking at the online reactions from Korea and Japan, I brought out the trump card I'd been preparing since before the preseason.
“Seon-myeong, I think it's time to bring that out.”
“Wait, we're really doing this?”
It was a ranking system that pitted Japanese and Korean fans against each other through uniform sales.
After the announcement, the site underwent a massive update.
On the first day of the update.
Son Hong-min took first place in uniform sales.
Apparently, Korean football fans were a little more accustomed to buying things online than Japanese football fans.
And the following day.
When the Taegeukgi was displayed across the front page of the site, the reactions from Korea and Japan grew extremely heated.
“……It's doing way better than expected?”
The scene became a hot topic in every country that had a football player at Union Berlin, and
from that day onward, Union Berlin's sales successfully broke through the roof.
***
[Park Chan-hyuk, controversy over the Taegeukgi and Japanese flag on the Union Berlin homepage.]
[Controversy over Park Chan-hyuk raising the Japanese flag on the Union Berlin website, leading to accusations that he is pro-Japanese…. “Ahem, I'm Korean too. But I can't change the rules however I want.”]
[When a reporter asked Park Chan-hyuk whether he would take Korea's side…. “In my heart, I support Korea, but since there are Japanese players here, I will remain neutral.”]
[Why was the German flag raised on the Union Berlin website…?]
└ Wow, fuck, Yannick Voigt is insanely intense.
└ No, is Park Chan-hyuk making this up? Yannick Voigt is way too far ahead.
└ Probably because offline sales have been counted since yesterday.
└ He's the captain and the team's key player, and he's incredibly popular because of the romantic loyalty he showed by staying with the club since the fourth division.
└ A lot of people in Korea and Japan probably bought Yannick Voigt jerseys too, right?
└ Tsk…. Is it because the Taegeukgi is between the Japanese and German flags? This feels kind of weird….
└ Fuck, lol. Why do I suddenly feel like a war criminal? lol
└ Wow, Lewandowski has climbed a lot too.
└ Is Lewandowski popular as well?
└ He is fairly popular because he's a striker, but
└ Poland is buying like crazy right now too.
└ No, why is Poland suddenly getting involved?
└ Lewandowski is playing there. And Poland has not forgotten Danzig.
└ It's Gdańsk, you fucker. What do you mean, Danzig?
└ This is like calling Dokdo Takeshima…;;
└ Learn it properly from now on. It's Gdańsk.
└ Anyway, so why did Poland suddenly get involved?
└ Think of it this way. Imagine the Taegeukgi being displayed on a famous Japanese website.
└ Wow, fuck, how are you supposed to endure this? lol
└ Park Chan-hyuk, this fucking bastard is insanely good at business. Phew…. Fucking bastard. Fine, I'll buy one.
***
“From now on, call me the God of Business.”
I was feeling rather conceited.
I had proven my business acumen by emptying the pockets of Asians.
‘Competition is the foundation of a capitalist society.’
There was no rule saying that only companies had to compete.
Consumers also had to compete in a capitalist society.
This was the first lesson led by Park Chan-hyuk.
“Krrr…. The kind of guy who proves himself in the end.”
Anyway.
The sales that had temporarily shot up dipped once, then began rising gently again.
Japanese right-wingers had rushed in, declaring that they couldn't lose to Korea.
Well, the people I had fleeced were less Union Berlin fans than people who couldn't stand losing to the neighboring country.
And in Japan, those people were right-wingers, while in Korea, they were people with anti-Japanese sentiments.
Amid this chaotic situation, I made Hong-min a new proposal.
“Change the uniform to SON?”
“Yeah, it'd be easier for Europeans to pronounce. And as luck would have it, it also means ‘son’ in English.”
If that happened, more fans would buy Hong-min's uniform to give to their sons starting next season.
For reference, it wasn't only the Korean and Japanese players whose uniform sales had increased.
After the flags were raised, people in Poland, Croatia, Brazil, and other countries were also actively buying uniforms.
German married men bought uniforms for Yannick Voigt, Thomas Maier, Manuel Schmidt, and Markus Matchke offline under the excuse of showing their patriotism.
‘……At this point, didn't they just want to buy the uniforms?’
The uniforms were selling smoothly.
But whenever something became this big, there were people who would jump in asking for a slice of the pie.
[Union Berlin's sales tactics are unfair and should be sanctioned….]
They were none other than politicians.
Politicians expressed concern over Union Berlin's business practices and even issued corrective orders, but
Union Berlin simply ignored them.
“Yeah. We're a German company.”
Union Berlin was a German company… no, a German club, not a Korean one, after all.
Well, there was the problem that Korean politicians might interfere with my younger brother's business this way.
‘……But didn't they interfere from the beginning?’
It wouldn't cause any serious problems.
***
Korea's social-media market was a three-way race.
Line, created by Naver, KakaoTalk, and Guten, the social network created by Park Jeong-ah.
Korean politicians encouraged people to use Line or KakaoTalk as much as possible by making it possible to receive official documents through Naver or KakaoTalk.
This was because Guten, created by Park Jeong-ah, had refused to cooperate with the Korean government's messenger surveillance, citing the protection of personal information.
“Agh. If we weaken security and people's personal information gets stolen, they bitch that we didn't protect it. If we say we can't hand over personal information because of security concerns, they bitch and ask why we can't. What a bunch of fucking assholes.”
I could hear Park Jeong-ah's string of curses, but I didn't bother scolding her this time. I instinctively sensed that this wasn't the time to mess with her.
Anyway, if Guten had only been targeting the Korean market, cooperating would have been the right thing to do, but
Guten was a global company operating throughout the world, so it had no choice.
The moment it gave in to the demands of Korean politicians, politicians in every other country around the world would undoubtedly make the same demands.
‘And at that point, an authoritarian country might make the request too.’
The moment they used that information to suppress an opposing faction, even once,
it would cause enormous damage to the company's image.
‘European and American users would surely all leave.’
That was also why Park Jeong-ah hadn't entered the Chinese market.
China would certainly demand that Guten allow it to see Chinese users' chats.
Anyway.
Guten, which Park Jeong-ah operated, had recently integrated football match schedules, and
it was a service that football fans received very positively.
“Ah. The next match was against Dortmund.”
For reference, I also made use of it from time to time.