Chapter 113
[Union Berlin Beat Hamburg 2–0.]
The match against Hamburg ended with Yannick Voigt's clinching goal.
[Lee Seong-jae Scores His Debut Goal Against Hamburg.]
Lee Seong-jae, who scored his debut goal, was named Man of the Match.
After another young Korean prospect won the Man of the Match award following Son Heung-min, South Koreans once again became interested in Union Berlin.
[Union Berlin Manager Park Chan-hyuk Discovers Lee Seong-jae After Son Heung-min…!]
‘……Isn't this the reporter who called me a traitor and made a fuss about it a while back?’
Apparently, having a thick skin was one of the virtues a sports reporter needed.
Anyway.
The moment the match between Union Berlin and Hamburg ended, the first half of the season came to a close and the winter break began.
[2008/2009 Bundesliga Standings.]
1. Union Berlin.
2. Hoffenheim.
3. Bayern Munich.
4. Hamburg.
5. Wolfsburg.
6. Leverkusen.
7. Dortmund.
At this very moment, with the first half of the season over.
It was none other than Union Berlin that currently sat atop the Bundesliga.
[A Major Upset in the Bundesliga! Union Berlin Racing at the Top of the League!]
[Can Union Berlin Win the Bundesliga for the First Time in Club History?]
[There Has Never Been a Newly Promoted Team Like This! Union Berlin Racing to the Top of the League Immediately After Promotion!]
Naturally, soccer fans' attention was focused on the sensation caused by last season's promoted team.
└ Is Park Chan-hyuk, this crazy bastard, really going to win the league?
└ Wow, fuck lol. When he was going on about winning the league at the start of the season, I thought he was an idiot, but he's really trying to do it.
└ It's pretty damn crazy how the overpaying controversy from before the season started has disappeared.
└ Those players' market values have gone up by at least 1.5 times since then;;
└ If they win the league, they'll double in value;;
└ At this point, isn't Park Chan-hyuk genuinely the god of investment?
Up until the beginning of the season, sports fans had mocked Union Berlin, believing that any team destined to fall would eventually fall.
But now that Union Berlin was still sitting in first place with the first half of the season over,
they had begun thinking, ‘Huh? Really? Is a promoted team actually going to win the league?’
└ But it would also be fun if Union Berlin completely collapsed in the second half.
While soccer fans hoped to see Union Berlin achieve a fairy-tale victory,
they were also betting on when Union Berlin would fall.
People cheered the fall of heroes just as loudly as they cheered their triumphs.
‘It was similar with Leicester City…. Some people hoped to see a fairy-tale victory, while others looked uneasily at Leicester City for disrupting the established order.’
Well. None of this controversy was bad for Union Berlin.
The continuing issues were drawing even more attention from casual fans to Union Berlin.
You could tell by the growing number of people wearing Union Berlin jerseys while walking the streets of Berlin.
Union Berlin was gradually drawing Berlin's residents into the stadium.
For reference, this was exactly why Hertha Berlin had recently begun keeping such a close eye on Union Berlin.
Union Berlin was taking away the Berlin residents Hertha had considered potential customers.
‘If Hertha Berlin had been getting better results, it would have been harder for Union Berlin's fan base to grow like this.’
People often said that attacking football brought in spectators, but the surest way to attract new fans was good results and trophies.
Recently, Berlin residents who had heard that Union Berlin was doing well visited its home ground thinking, ‘Well, why don't I take this opportunity to watch a soccer match?’ and naturally began to become Union Berlin fans.
‘……We should probably make the jerseys look a little nicer next season.’
Thinking of the increasing number of Union Berlin jerseys on the streets, I decided to ask my younger sister to design next season's jerseys.
If I told my sister about it, she would either find a good designer or something.
Anyway, while Union Berlin spread its wings and soared into the sky,
there were also teams that quietly sank.
[Bayern Munich Finish the First Half of the Season in Third Place.]
[Bayern Munich Fans Explode in Anger.]
└ Does third place in the league make any sense?
└ Fuck this shitty team, just disband already!
That team was none other than Bayern Munich, now managed by Jürgen Klinsmann.
Bayern Munich's fans were furious that the team had finished third in the league rather than even second.
Munich was supposed to be the Bundesliga's absolute dominant force, so it was humiliating that they had finished third and were fighting for Champions League qualification instead of the league title.
[Bayern Munich Board Decides to Give Jürgen Klinsmann a Little More Time.]
‘Krrr─! Have those Bayern board members fallen under Klinsmann's spell?’
I quietly rooted for Jürgen Klinsmann as I watched all this unfold.
For the sake of a comfortable title run, it was important for Klinsmann to hold on to the manager's position for as long as possible.
***
With the first half of the season over, I decided to take a vacation until the Christmas event. I went straight home and spent my first carefree vacation in a long time.
It felt like it had been ages since I had enjoyed this kind of leisure.
It seemed that I really had been living an excessively busy life since ending my (forced) unemployed days.
I slept soundly all day, as if trying to shake off all the fatigue that had built up.
And the next day.
I woke up in the early morning.
I turned on StarCraft, Korea's traditional folk game, for the first time in a while and slaughtered some Germans. If there had been a game called League of Legends, I would have played that instead. Unfortunately, LoL had not been released yet.
Anyway. The game was easy.
Although the Germans were known as war machines, the weak twenty-first-century Germans couldn't defeat me, a man who possessed both German aggression and the average Korean temperament.
- KoreaNo.1: What a pushover lol
- KoreaNo.1: Get out lol
- KoreaNo.1: Get out lol
- KoreaNo.1: Get out lol
- RRR: Scheiße! Can't you play without running your mouth?
- KoreaNo.1: Yeah~ I am playing with my mouth shut, though? This game is played with your hands lol
- KoreaNo.1: Main base drop incoming~~~
- KoreaNo.1; Fakeout, dumbass! It was your natural expansion, remember?
- RRR: Fucking Korean!
After setting up Photon Cannons at the entrance to my opponent's natural expansion and teabagging him, my opponent eventually left after spewing a string of curses.
While I was manufacturing anti-Korean sentiment among the Germans,
“Oppa, are you busy?”
My younger sister came to my room.
She had brought me an answer to the request I had made a few days earlier.
“So, you're going to design Union Berlin's uniforms for next season?”
“Yeah.”
“Why…?”
“Because I want to?”
“……Can't you just leave it to a professional?”
“Why? I'm confident I can do a good job too.”
In response to my sister saying that she wanted to do it herself, I set one condition.
She had to collaborate with Adidas, the German company.
‘Even so, Adidas will keep her under control, right?’
***
After wrapping up my few sweet days of rest, I went back to work at the club.
Union Berlin wouldn't function without me.
“……Couldn't you just rest at home?”
“My parents don't like it when I just play games at home.”
Anyway.
Casemiro's signing was pushed back to the summer transfer window.
There were several reasons Casemiro's transfer had been delayed, but the biggest problem was this.
‘We spent way too much money this time.’
Union Berlin's cash shortage.
Union Berlin had spent a fortune during the summer transfer window to completely overhaul its defense.
As a result, Union Berlin had run out of money.
And at the moment, Casemiro was still lacking in several respects to claim a starting spot even if he joined.
Although he would later prove talented enough to be part of the Kroos-Casemiro-Modrić trio, he was still only a prospect.
‘And before Casemiro, Kroos is the one we need to sign first.’
Toni Kroos was currently on loan at Leverkusen.
Since last season, I had sounded Kroos out several times by offering him a transfer, but Kroos had shown little interest in moving to Union Berlin.
‘……Is this the power of Bayern Munich's name?’
Well. It didn't matter.
After the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Toni Kroos would be discarded and driven out by the board.
At the time, Bayern's board trampled the pride of Toni Kroos, who had shown such loyalty to the club.
‘That's why he ended up transferring for a mere €25 million.’
€25 million wasn't a small amount of money.
But considering the value of a world-class midfielder, it was an absurdly low fee.
President Pérez hadn't called it ‘the transfer of the century’ for no reason.
After moving to Real Madrid, Toni Kroos went on to build a legend by winning three consecutive Champions League titles.
‘This time…. Let's bring him in. If I tempt him by saying we should get revenge, maybe he'll come?’
Anyway, a few days later.
A Christmas event more grandiose than usual was held at Union Berlin's home ground.
Christmas carols rang out at Union Berlin's temporary home ground.
As I listened to the Christmas carols, I pictured the home stadium whose basic framework had been completed.
‘Judging by the pace of construction, we might be able to play our final match of the season at home.’
The shortened construction period was entirely thanks to Union Berlin's fans.
They provided their labor day and night to build the stadium where they would cheer on their team.
Thanks to the funds raised for the stadium's construction, Union Berlin's fans no longer had to worry about making a living and continued working voluntary overtime at a pace that made it hard to believe they were in Germany.
“……If these people worked this hard normally, every construction company in Korea would go bankrupt.”
A construction company employee from Korea let out a hollow laugh at the sight of the Germans working day and night without rest.
In fact, the entire Köpenick area was a construction site wherever you went.
That was because Guten's relocation of its headquarters had been finalized.
Guten was building its headquarters in the Köpenick area, and other facilities, including a data center, were also scheduled to be built.
And since housing also had to be provided for the employees who would work at Guten,
most of the Treptow-Köpenick district ended up under construction.
But the most popular workplace was the site where Union Berlin's home stadium was being built.
Some fans even said they would accept a pay cut if it meant they could work on the construction of Union Berlin's home stadium.
‘That's how passionate they are. No wonder the stadium is being built at that speed.’
Anyway.
The Christmas event ended successfully.
After that, time passed quickly,
and the second half of the Bundesliga season began.
Union Berlin's first opponent of the second half was
[Union Berlin Manager Park Chan-hyuk Offers Unusual Praise Ahead of the Match Instead of Provocation? “Frankfurt Is an Excellent Club.”]
Eintracht Frankfurt.