Chapter 11
***
There are quite a lot of clubs in Germany.
The number of football clubs officially registered with the DFB is a staggering 30,000, and the number of registered teams is about 170,000.
Just by registered teams alone, that is a much larger number than England.
Well... as you'd expect, the more clubs there are, the more England stands out in terms of quality.
In fact, in Germany there was such widespread, community-based football that people said, “One club in every town.”
Anyway, among the 18-team fourth division NOFV-Oberliga Nord, the club that came looking for me was Union Berlin, a Berlin-based side.
Any football fan would probably know the club's name.
Well, even if the name doesn't ring a bell, the moment you hear the club's nickname, you'll naturally blurt out, “Ah! That club!”
“A club built on blood….”
Unlike how savage that nickname sounds, its meaning was romance itself.
In 2004.
That was just last year.
Union Berlin was in danger of losing its league license if it couldn't clear more than 2 million euros in debt.
Union Berlin fans helped the club keep its license by donating the small cash payments they received for giving blood, contributing to the club's finances.
The nickname “the club built on blood” was given to honor those Union Berlin fans.
[Bluten für Union! (Let's bleed for Union!)]
At the time, I was studying football in Stuttgart, and through newspaper articles I could feel the passion of Union Berlin's fans.
In a way, Union Berlin could be called a club that embodied the identity of German football.
As another point of note, a Korean player would later come here on loan.
Anyway.
‘This is a chance to buy low!’
The moment I heard the name Union Berlin, my body reacted on its own.
I promised to report to the club starting the next day.
Looking back now, I should have been more careful with the contract.
It must have been because my mind was uneasy after such a long stretch of unemployment.
So I ended up realizing it a little late.
That another word for romance is hardship.
The day after I visited Union Berlin to finalize the contract,
I fell into despair.
“…Is this for real?”
It was so rundown it was hard to believe it was even a football club.
For a split second, I remembered the time I was unloading parcels and fled after just thirty minutes.
‘Should I just make a run for it?’
Just as I was seriously considering running away from there.
“Chan-hyuk!”
An all-too-familiar face greeted me.
“Thomas!”
I had never been so happy to see the face of the mad scientist Thomas Tuchel.
“It's even nicer to see you here.”
“What happened?”
“I've been appointed manager here. So I recommended you as a coach.”
“Then you should have told me in advance.”
“If you had refused the coaching position, I was preparing to contact you directly. But I hear you accepted without hesitation.”
I quietly nodded at Tuchel's words.
‘Hmm. What a rude bastard. Definitely Tuchel.’
***
Before Thomas Tuchel was appointed manager of Union Berlin,
‘At this rate, next season will be rough too.’
Dirk Zingler, who took office in January 2004, was deep in thought.
In 2001, Union Berlin won the third-division title while also achieving the historic feat of finishing as DFB-Pokal runner-up and qualifying for the UEFA Cup.
At the time, Union Berlin's board got carried away after qualifying for the UEFA Cup. If they invested just a little more, the club's first-ever promotion to the top flight didn't seem impossible.
But that was the beginning of the tragedy.
With promotion to the top division as the goal, the club accelerated its professionalization, and costs began to soar.
But early elimination from the UEFA Cup, Germany's economic crisis, and the resulting low attendance revenue combined to destabilize Union Berlin's finances.
[Union Berlin, sinking into a losing streak.]
[Financial crisis at Union Berlin, fans take to the streets to save the club.]
[Bluten für Union! (Let's bleed for Union!)]
In that situation, Chairman Dirk Zingler took office.
He did his best to keep the club up, but it wasn't enough against finances that had been completely wrecked.
Union Berlin struggled amid worsening finances, fighting not for promotion but just to stay up, yet in the end it was relegated back to the third division in the 03/04 season.
And then, during the 04/05 season, while Park Chan-hyuk was going through his dark phase,
Union Berlin suffered consecutive relegations and was dropped to the amateur fourth division.
Once again, the players' contracts were automatically terminated, and many players left the club.
Now it was truly a matter of survival. The club could even go bankrupt.
There were cases where a bankrupt club was rebuilt, but that was truly the last resort.
Rebuilding after declaring bankruptcy would mean severing Union Berlin's history.
Union Berlin was a storied club that began in 1906, but it had already suffered once before when it was rebuilt in 1966 because of the war.
On top of that, unlike the teams supported by the East German government and the State Security Ministry, Union Berlin had a history as a people's club supported by ordinary citizens,
and that spirit of resistance was still being carried on by the fans at the time.
“We will survive no matter what. In the most Union way possible.”
Watching a fan being interviewed on the local news, Chairman Dirk Zingler's worries only deepened.
‘It's an uphill battle just to appoint a manager.’
Union Berlin was currently a club that had everyone talking because of its financial crisis.
There wasn't a manager willing to take the helm of a sinking ship.
Fortunately, a fan-led campaign drew media attention and successfully secured additional funds,
but the club's finances were still in bad shape.
There was also a downside to the campaign's enormous success.
All sorts of nobodies started sending in applications just to get their names in the media.
Just as Chairman Dirk Zingler was getting tired of failing to find a manager he liked,
‘Maybe I should look for a young, promising manager instead.’
he heard news of a madman who had successfully led Stuttgart and Augsburg's youth teams.
‘Thomas Tuchel...’
His personality, which often clashed with the board, was a little concerning, but that had nothing to do with the current Union Berlin.
Because Union Berlin currently had absolutely no board members to fight with the manager.
“Please become the manager of our team.”
Chairman Dirk Zingler personally approached Thomas Tuchel, who was starting to make a name for himself, and made the offer.
***
When Union Berlin made the offer, Thomas Tuchel was about to refuse without even thinking.
He wasn't stupid enough to become the captain of a sinking ship.
But the very moment Thomas Tuchel was about to turn down Chairman Dirk Zingler's offer,
the connection he had made in Stuttgart came to mind.
A boy who had come to Germany alone at the age of 16, armed only with the desire to learn football and a stubborn sense of challenge.
- …just loafing around.
And then he remembered a message from a few days earlier saying the boy was still without a job and just freeloading on meals.
“Chan-hyuk, I'll make a spot for you, so just trust me and follow me.”
At the same time, the words he had said himself came back to him.
‘Hmm.’
After hearing Park Chan-hyuk's story about being fired a day after taking a coaching job, Thomas Tuchel wanted to show the Germans who discriminated based on skin color
that football is played with your head, not with your skin color.
“Can I arrange the coaching staff however I want?”
Tuchel put forward only one condition,
“Yes. Of course.”
Once Chairman Dirk Zingler accepted Tuchel's condition, Tuchel agreed to take the manager's job.
***
My role at Union Berlin was assistant coach.
Strictly speaking, I was only assistant coach in name, and under Thomas Tuchel I handled every kind of odd job.
‘Why is there so much work?’
Anyway, to briefly sum up the pros and cons I felt over the few days I spent here.
First, the upside was that there really was no one at the club, so the two of us had to do everything.
And the downside was that there were simply too few people.
To the point where I had to handle opponent analysis, player condition management, acting as the bridge between Tuchel and the squad, and every other small errand myself.
Actually, there had originally been quite a few people left here.
There were people who still loved the team enough to work for free, and people who were too incompetent to go anywhere else.
But our ruthless boss, Thomas Tuchel, got rid of the people who lacked ability.
Once those latter people disappeared, there were hardly any Union Berlin staff left,
and I ended up doing the odd jobs myself.
In my previous life, I used to complain that the support for the civic club I belonged to was poor, but compared to this place, it had been heaven.
‘Ah... but I don't miss those days, though.’
Anyway, time flew as I adapted to my new workplace, Union Berlin,
and before long, the league opener was approaching.
“…Chan-hyuk.”
Thomas Tuchel called me into the manager's office.
Was it because he sensed that a new task would be handed to me?
“What is it?”
Even I was surprised by how cold my response to Tuchel sounded.
Just as I was startled and about to apologize to Tuchel, Thomas Tuchel continued,
“I'm really sorry to ask this of you, but could you also take the field as a player?”
I quietly shelved my apology.