Chapter 19
***
After Thomas Tuchel offered me a scout position on the side, I spent every free moment looking over players around Berlin.
Well, even before Tuchel's instructions, I'd already been visiting stadiums and checking out promising prospects and all kinds of other players.
Since I'd been given the scouting ability, I might as well make good use of it. And after watching several hundred players, I realized one thing.
'So if I just go take a quick look, that's enough?'
Maybe scouting—or even being an agent—was actually the kind of work I was best suited for.
Still, that didn't mean I planned to become an agent.
[Mission: Lift the Big Ear as a manager.]
It was partly because of the mission, but since I'd already stepped into the football world, I'd set becoming the best manager as my new goal.
Pep, Klopp, Thomas Tuchel, and the like.
To become the best manager, there were a lot of mountains to climb....
'...Hmm. Is the difficulty set too high?'
The more I thought about it, the less confident I was that I could beat those tactical perverts.
Especially Pep Guardiola—he would soon begin with Barcelona and go on to manage for more than twenty years.
In truth, the manager's seat is a position where you have to take responsibility for wins and losses.
Naturally, the pressure and stress caused by the results are impossible to put into words. The crushing workload is a bonus.
Famous masterminds don't talk about burnout for no reason. Unless you're a tactical lunatic, how could you live like that?
'Come to think of it, there's even an anecdote about Tuchel and Guardiola talking tactics all night when they met.'
Tuchel definitely doesn't seem normal either.
Anyway, I quickly revised my goal. I'd realized there was no way to beat those tactical lunatics head-on.
'Hmm. Being the best manager is too much. Let's just become the most famous manager instead.'
So my new goal became to become the world's most famous football manager. I figured I'd at least beat Pep Guardiola in star appeal.
'First win: hair count.'
I'd also picked out a superstar manager to benchmark myself against.
'Mo, Mourinho!'
He's a Portuguese manager who now goes by the name Mourinho.
Anyway.
Thomas Tuchel's offer wasn't a bad one for me either.
Someday I'd break free from Tuchel's embrace and become a proper manager on my own.
And if I wanted to recruit good players, it was important to get used to the scouting ability I had.
'None of them have much potential.'
There really were all sorts of players in the fourth division.
From players with no real talent who couldn't leave because they loved football, to players who had retired because of injuries.
Still, I never once saw a player with world-class potential wandering through the lower leagues.
Finding a world-class talent just by walking down the street really does seem like something that only exists in fiction.
'So finding Yannick really was luck.'
As I was once again realizing that discovering Yannick Voigt had been pure heaven-sent luck,
“Pass!”
“Block Maximus!”
I could hear the sound of students kicking a ball nearby.
Without thinking much about it, I headed toward the soccer field where the kids were playing.
And there, by chance, I found a boy with world-class talent.
[Name: Lucas Neumann]
[Potential: ★★★★★★]
[One-line review: Can you feel the difference in talent, human?]
I immediately ran over and spoke to the boy.
By now I'd even gotten used to the snarky one-line review, so I didn't really pay it much mind.
The conversation with that football genius mattered more than sparring with the scout window.
“I already have a team.”
But Lucas Neumann already belonged to a youth team.
'Well, of course, damn it.'
Come to think of it, there was no way a player with that level of talent wouldn't already be on a youth team.
'What's the chance of finding a player like that? About the same as stumbling across gold bars while walking down the street.'
In practical terms, it was basically safe to say the chance of running into one was zero.
***
After talking with the 16-year-old prodigy Lucas Neumann,
Lucas was part of Hertha Berlin's youth team, a club in the Bundesliga.
In a Union Berlin youth setup that had been half-neglected because of financial trouble, he was the sort of prospect you'd only dream of.
Even so, he wasn't our player.
“First, training well is important, but eating and resting are important too.”
I told Lucas about diet and the exercises he shouldn't do.
It was disappointing, as someone in football, that a player with this much potential could disappear without even leaving his name behind.
Judging from the fact that I never heard his name in the future, he must have quit football for one reason or another, or had his potential drained away until he became a mediocre or worse player.
Well... Even if that wasn't the case, fully unlocking one's potential was difficult enough already.
'Come to think of it, I haven't seen a single player who's fully unlocked their potential yet.'
Come to think of it, maybe that was only natural.
Ordinary people probably can't tell the difference between what they're good at and what they're not good at.
Maybe a player learned passing easily and played as an attacking midfielder, only to discover later that he actually had greater potential as a defender.
If a manager who noticed that player's defensive ability then moved him to defensive midfield, that would be a blessing.
But most players rarely got the chance to run into something like that.
It would be hard to meet a manager with enough stature that even famously proud professional players would readily accept a position change from him.
And while some players do skyrocket after changing positions,
there were also many whose careers got twisted up by the wrong position change.
That was how big a decision a position change was; it wasn't something you could decide without the player's own determination and firm belief in the manager.
Anyway.
I told him all the advice I could give right there and then.
Though to be honest, I was thinking about other things halfway through while I was giving it, because he was being so half-hearted about listening.
'Well, if some old guy who happened to be the fourth division's chief coach started lecturing me, I wouldn't listen either.'
I could understand Lucas's attitude well enough.
Anyway, whether he accepted my advice or not was up to him now.
I'd done everything I could.
While I was congratulating myself for contributing to the development of the football world that day,
“But...”
Lucas Neumann glanced at me and cautiously asked,
“Huh? What is it?”
“How old are you, talking like some old man?”
And in that moment, I realized.
'Ah. Right.'
I'm only 18.
***
After parting ways with Lucas Neumann and returning home,
“I'm back.”
“Welcome back.”
I saw my younger sister, Park Jeong-a, sprawled out on the sofa, greeting her older brother.
Her clothes were strewn all over the place, and a sigh escaped me.
'That thing, a former idol?'
I didn't have any illusions about women anymore, given my age.
Still, I never would have imagined that a famous former idol would live like a pig.
But I didn't scold my sister.
“Jeong-a, want something to drink?”
“…Why are you acting like that? Did you eat something bad?”
The year was 2005.
Even though smartphones hadn't been released yet, Apple's stock had already tripled.
The more my wealth grew, the more generously I naturally became.
Anyway, while I was being ground down by that exploitative manager Thomas Tuchel,
my father and sister had recently started a business.
I hadn't explained it to my father in detail, but it seemed my sister was preparing for life after smartphones came out.
Their plan was to get ahead of the curve when Apple released the first smartphone in history in 2007....
Honestly, I wasn't sure whether the business would go well.
The world was full of geniuses who defied common sense.
'Well, still. She does have that future-from-the-future sensibility. She probably won't do badly?'
I only hoped my sister's business would succeed and, along with increasing my own wealth, become a solid sponsor for the club I'd be managing.
***
After the start of the 2005/2006 season, Union Berlin charged ahead like mad from the top of the table.
[Union Berlin succeeds in winning eight league matches in a row.]
[Union Berlin is eliminated from the Peivanz Pokal, which they needed to win to qualify for the DFB-Pokal.]
After being knocked out of the Peivanz Pokal, which they had to win to qualify for the DFB-Pokal,
[Union Berlin's winning streak is broken. A 1-1 draw!]
Even though the draw ended their winning streak,
their unbeaten run in the league continued,
and Union Berlin held on to first place with a commanding points lead.
The local papers praised Thomas Tuchel's tactics for Union Berlin's success.
[Thomas Tuchel, speaking about the chief coach. "Chan-hyuk is already a ready-made manager."]
Through interviews, Tuchel would often mention me,
and thanks to Tuchel, I had also become fairly well known by fourth-division standards.
Even if it wasn't the mainstream, offers began trickling in from lower-division clubs.
There were, of course, offers to manage lower-table fourth-division teams. Among them were also youth manager offers from first-division clubs.
I'd grown attached to Union Berlin in my own way, and since I had no intention of leaving the Tuchel camp for now, I regretfully turned them down.
'For the time being, I need to stay firmly attached to the Tuchel train.'
At 18 years old, young enough to be almost childish, it would be hard to win over the squad.
Thanks to several factors, including Thomas Tuchel's backing, the players at Union Berlin were fairly obedient to what I said,
but there was no guarantee players elsewhere would listen to me.
Still.
Considering that just a year earlier I'd been a complete jobless bum, the world had changed 180 degrees.
Anyway.
Before I knew it, we'd passed the halfway point of the season and were heading toward the Christmas break.
[Thomas Tuchel hospitalized with the flu! Will chief coach Park Chan-hyuk become the youngest manager?]
Union Berlin's tyrant, Thomas Tuchel, collapsed with the flu,
'Ah. This cold, heavy sensation. It's been 18 years.'
I temporarily took over as Union Berlin's acting manager.
“From now on, I'll stand at the pinnacle of Union Berlin.”