Chapter 20
***
Union Berlin manager Thomas Tuchel had been laid low by the flu.
The squad was a little rattled by the manager's sudden absence, but they weren't too worried.
After all, Union Berlin were still holding on to first place with overwhelming results.
“Then what do we do about our next match?”
“The chief coach will act as manager.”
“Ah. Then that's fine.”
That was because Park Chan-hyeok was already earning the players' trust.
And because Tuchel was still young, they figured he'd be back soon.
[Yannick Voigt, M.O.M. for 3 Straight Games]
Anyway, the whole squad watched Yannick Voigt's growth and performances—the player Park Chan-hyeok had strongly recommended during the trial.
‘That Yannick brat couldn't kick a ball as well as me... when did he get that good?’
‘Maybe I could get even better at football if I did extra training with Coach Park Chan-hyeok?’
Impressed by Yannick Voigt's rapid development, a few players who wanted to improve as players asked Park Chan-hyeok if they could try the special training course he had designed.
And they found out.
“This isn't human behavior.”
“Wow. Did you see how he roared the moment someone lost focus in training? I saw that and thought the chief coach was a monster.”
Why Yannick Voigt had been able to improve so quickly in such a short time.
Most of them gave up before long.
- You know? If you just follow the chief coach's instructions, your skills improve.
- But apparently it's so hard you can't even manage that.
Rumors about Park Chan-hyeok's special training regimen kept growing.
And above all, Park Chan-hyeok wasn't an ordinary chief coach.
Park Chan-hyeok was a playing chief coach, responsible for carrying out Thomas Tuchel's tactics on the field and mediating between the players and the manager.
After experiencing Tuchel's social skills, some people preferred to pass their thoughts through Park Chan-hyeok rather than speak directly to the manager.
“I know everyone's confused, but nothing major is going to change! All we can do right now is trust Chan-hyeok as usual!”
Since Park Chan-hyeok understood Thomas Tuchel's tactics better than anyone, everyone figured things wouldn't be much different.
And the next day.
“Gentlemen, I love war.”
The players fell silent as they watched Park Chan-hyeok give a speech on the training ground.
“...Nothing's going to change?”
***
Although they were only in the fourth division, the bad news about undefeated Union Berlin spread like wildfire.
[Will Union Berlin's unbeaten streak come to an end?]
Not only the newspapers in Union Berlin's region, but even big-name papers like Kicker and Bild ran the story, albeit tucked away in a corner.
They had already made a name for themselves nationwide once before with last year's blood donation campaign.
If they had been a normal club, public interest would have quietly faded away after the blood donation campaign.
But Union Berlin kept holding people's attention with one unexpected move after another.
A young manager in his thirties, the appointment of an 18-year-old as the youngest chief coach, and an unbeaten run.
As a result, Union Berlin had surprisingly high recognition.
Even if people didn't know the team name Union Berlin exactly, hearing keywords like “manager in his thirties,” “blood donation campaign,” and “Asian chief coach” was enough for them to go, “Ah. That team?”
Well... that, and the fact that the Bundesliga break was drawing near, meant there wasn't much new news either.
[Park Chan-hyeok, Youngest Acting Manager: Can He Keep the Unbeaten Run Going?]
***
I was only acting manager for a week, maybe two at most, but I had to spend my days busier than usual.
‘I'm going to die at this rate....’
Because on top of my usual workload, I was getting all the work Tuchel normally handled dumped on me.
Of course, in the middle of all that, I made time to visit Thomas Tuchel in the hospital.
Since he was the sort of man who had left home and was living alone in Berlin, I thought I should at least take care of him.
And there, I happened to run into Tuchel's partner.
“Oh? Ah, hello.”
Without thinking, I bowed to Tuchel's partner in the Korean style. If I wasn't careful, I would greet people that way without even realizing it. I guess years of living in Korea had made the habit stick.
“You're Chief Coach Park Chan-hyeok, right? Thomas has told me a lot about you.”
I talked a little more with Tuchel's partner, but I just couldn't focus on the conversation.
‘No way, he was dating in the middle of all that busy work?’
I felt jealous and wronged.
Here I was, growing old day by day as a lifelong bachelor, and this guy, a manager, was out dating.
And if I remembered that Thomas Tuchel was going to get married soon, timing-wise she would be my future sister-in-law.
“I'm just going to go buy some fruit for a bit, so please keep talking.”
My future sister-in-law stepped aside, telling us to keep talking.
I glared at the traitor, Thomas Tuchel.
“...Why are you looking at me like that?”
My soul suffered an indescribably huge wound from the betrayal of Thomas Tuchel, whom I had considered a fellow member of the singles alliance.
“Traitor.”
Tuchel bristled at my resentful words.
“Why am I the traitor! ...And you're eighteen now, aren't you!”
Well, he wasn't wrong. There's no set order to these things, but if you think about age, it would in many ways be more proper for Tuchel to go first.
Anyway, the original purpose was a hospital visit, so I got back to the point.
“How are you feeling?”
“I'm good enough to be discharged right this instant.”
“Think about your health and get some proper rest while you have the chance.”
“...Don't say the same thing as Sisi. It's creepy.”
Thomas Tuchel and the board fought like cats and dogs, but that was because his standards were far too high, not because he lacked responsibility.
“By the way, aren't you busy with work?”
At Tuchel's question, I answered with a smile.
“I found a substitute.”
In other words, I had handed it off to Kim Seon-myeong, who had started out as a volunteer translating Union Berlin's website into Korean and ended up becoming an intern.
‘Well, we've exchanged greetings, so I should probably head back soon.’
Thomas Tuchel, for his part, looked disappointed when I tried to return to the club. Apparently, hospital life was boring.
“Since you're here anyway, how about we talk tactics for a bit before you go?”
“Sure.”
Tuchel brightened up, and we spent a while talking about Mourinho's tactics.
“Anti-football, huh.”
“Well, I can kind of see it. Watching football isn't exactly fun, after all. Oh, right. Do you have a tactic prepared just in case?”
“I do, but... since I ended up in the hospital, it'd be better if you prepared again. They'll probably come at us offensively.”
“I see.”
“By the way, it's your managerial debut. Are you prepared?”
I answered Thomas Tuchel's question with nothing but a smile. I was that confident we'd win.
Most managers and clubs build their tactics around a strong Plan A.
They may also make a Plan B in case Plan A gets shut down as the season goes on.
But there was no manager who built anything beyond Plan C.
Players aren't machines that can immediately adapt just because the tactics change.
It was far more efficient to refine Plan A or train the players to adapt to Plan A instead.
In fact, for a rookie manager, substitution timing and squad control were bigger problems than Plan A...
‘Not my problem.’
Since I hadn't been newly appointed as manager, squad control was effectively already taken care of. And as a manager, I actually had more experience than Tuchel.
Thomas Tuchel was better at figuring out the opponent's tactics and analyzing them frame by frame, but in areas where experience mattered more than talent, such as substitution timing, I was better.
- Coach, shouldn't we take Markus off soon?
- Why?
- If we want to run him into the ground until the end of the season without an injury, we need to manage his stamina.
There were even times I advised Tuchel on substitutions.
And so, we talked about tactics for a while.
‘...Would other people see me as a weirdo too?’
Well, still, I wasn't about to be lumped in with tactical freaks like Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola.
Anyway.
Internally, the club hadn't changed much, but from the outside, it seemed different.
When I came back after the hospital visit, new tasks had flooded in during that brief interval.
“Chan-hyeok, we've got an interview request.”
“Suddenly?”
Of course the press wouldn't pass up the rare sight of an 18-year-old Asian acting manager.
“It'd be nice from the club's perspective if you did the interview, but if the media still feels like too much, you don't have to do it.”
“No. I'll do the interview.”
I smiled and turned down Chairman Dirk Zingler's considerate offer.
Public attention was always a good thing.
“Nice to meet you, Chief Coach.”
And since I had the media's attention anyway, I was going to set a trap.
“Ah, hello.”
In a past life, interview-based psychological warfare had been my specialty.
***
[Chief Coach Park Chan-hyeok taunts his opponent. “Either we hammer them or get hammered. But I don't think we'll be the ones getting hammered.”]
[Chief Coach Park Chan-hyeok on the taunting controversy. “Since I won't be seeing them next season anyway.”]