Chapter 23
***
After Daniel Teixeira’s goal, the match clearly tilted in Union Berlin’s favor.
“Keep pressing! The game isn’t over yet!”
Even after scoring three goals, Union Berlin was still unsatisfied and kept hammering MSV Neuruppin.
“Dem Morgengrauen entgegen, ziehn wir gegen den Wind. (Toward the dawn, we march against the wind.)”
They scored a fourth goal just before halftime, effectively ending the match.
“Wir werden alles zerlegen, bis wir Deutscher Meister sind. (We will tear everything apart until we are German champions.)”
Just as Union Berlin fans, certain of victory, began singing their chant at the top of their lungs,
Beep─!
the referee’s whistle signaled the end of the first half.
And then came halftime.
Unlike the MSV Neuruppin players, who entered the locker room with their heads bowed amid the home fans’ jeers,
the Union Berlin players came in wearing bright smiles. The game had gone that much in Union Berlin’s favor.
‘I did pretty well today, right?’
‘This should be enough to satisfy Chan-hyeok.’
‘What should I eat for dinner?’
But contrary to the players’ expectations after entering the locker room,
“I’m still hungry.”
what greeted them was Park Chan-hyeok’s declaration that he was starving.
“…Want some of this?”
Startled by the sudden declaration of hunger, Yannick Voigt held out a banana.
“Huh? Racism?”
Seeing the yellow banana, Park Chan-hyeok reacted without thinking. It was a persecution complex born from two years of living in Germany.
“Wow. That’s some nerve, racially discriminating against the interim manager.”
“Boooooo! Yannick is trash!”
“Coach Park Chan-hyeok, that bastard has rotten character. Sub me in for the second half instead?”
At Park Chan-hyeok’s remark, Daniel Teixeira got mischievous and started stirring things up, and the Union Berlin players began showering Yannick Voigt with criticism, led by Daniel Teixeira.
“Nein!! That’s not what I meant!”
The comical sight of Yannick Voigt frantically waving both hands made the Union Berlin players burst out laughing.
Laughter echoed constantly through Union Berlin’s locker room, and once Park Chan-hyeok realized Yannick Voigt hadn’t done it on purpose, he clapped to change the mood.
“All right, everyone, listen up! We’re going to come out aggressively in the second half.”
As soon as the Union Berlin players heard Park Chan-hyeok’s voice, they stopped laughing and began focusing on what he had to say.
***
The moment the second half began, Union Berlin’s tactics changed.
‘Damn it, we got played again.’
The MSV Neuruppin manager let out a sigh at the sight of them launching a relentless press.
He had thought Union Berlin would be satisfied with the score and ease off the attack.
But contrary to his expectations, Union Berlin didn’t slow the tempo at all and, if anything, pressed the opposition even more aggressively than in the first half.
The Neuruppin players couldn’t hide their shock at Union Berlin’s 180-degree transformation from the first half.
‘Nice, the game’s completely tilted now.’
Park Chan-hyeok nodded with a satisfied smile as the match unfolded exactly as he had expected.
***
At the same time.
Kim Seon-myeong, who had been filming the match from the stands, had by then started trying to provide commentary in Korean.
He was bored watching the game alone.
“That’s good pressure from Daniel Teixeira. By the way, having lived with him, I can tell you this player is very dedicated.”
In any case, since he wasn’t a professional commentator, the commentary wasn’t exactly smooth.
“He even took a pay cut to join Union Berlin. I heard from the coach that he trains diligently every single time too, so he’s a veteran who sets an example for the younger players.”
Since Kim Seon-myeong was an intern at Union Berlin, he knew the club’s inner workings and the players well.
He introduced the players one by one with information Union Berlin fans would want to know.
“Oh? He’s won the ball! Who is it? Ah! It’s Jürgen. He’s a university student like me.”
While he was talking about the players, Union Berlin’s counterattack unfolded quickly,
and Yannick Voigt, who got on the end of it, calmly scored.
“Oh? It’s in—gooooal! Wait, does that make it a hat trick? My God! Yannick Voigt has recorded his first-ever hat trick!”
***
‘A hat trick…!’
The moment Yannick Voigt completed his first hat trick, he turned toward Union Berlin’s bench.
‘Chan-hyeok!’
He wanted to run over to the assistant coach who had brought him to where he was now.
‘...Huh? Where did the assistant coach go?’
But Park Chan-hyeok was nowhere to be found on Union Berlin’s bench.
‘Why is everyone looking over there?’
Yannick Voigt turned his head following the gaze of the players on the bench.
“I am the next-generation Mouuuuuurinhooooo─!”
He saw Park Chan-hyeok performing a knee slide in front of MSV Neuruppin’s home fans.
“…What is this? Am I dreaming?”
Yannick Voigt, thrown into cognitive dissonance, stared blankly as the assistant coach was ejected.
***
The match between Union Berlin and MSV Neuruppin came to an end.
With both the manager and assistant coach gone, Daniel Teixeira had to take over instead.
[Union Berlin cruises past second-place MSV Neuruppin 5–0.]
In any case, we succeeded in demolishing second-place MSV Neuruppin 5-0.
[MSV manager Wolfgang, after facing assistant coach Park Chan-hyeok, gives his assessment of Park Chan-hyeok: ‘Terrible in every sense. I never want to see him again.’]
[Park Chan-hyeok, assistant coach, sent off after a caution and now facing punishment?]
[Park Chan-hyeok, handed a five-match ban for provoking the crowd.]
There was the trivial issue of being punished for pulling off a reverse-run stunt before Adebayor did, but anyway.
[Park Chan-hyeok, interim manager, sent off but still delivers a successful debut...]
My managerial debut was a success, and the Union Berlin and MSV Neuruppin match became quite the topic of conversation.
After that, offers poured in that were on an entirely different level from before.
But they still weren’t enough to tempt me. I guess they still found it hard to believe.
Besides, I wasn’t in any hurry. I was only 18, after all.
If I kept building my career step by step under Tuchel, a good offer was certain to come someday.
Or I could become the manager of the club my younger sister had taken over.
“Chan-hyeok, congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“Oppa, congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
In any case, as my family quietly celebrated my first debut,
- Chan-hyeok, come to my hospital quickly.
- What is it?
- It’s urgent! Hurry and come!
I got a call from Tuchel and rushed to the hospital where he had been admitted.
I thought he might have developed a serious health problem.
And that evening,
“Oh-ho. So you created a tight space like this and shoved the opponent into it.”
“…You bastard. I was having dinner with my family.”
“Isn’t it already too late to go back?”
I had to spend the whole night talking with Thomas Tuchel about the tactics I had used.
Hmm.
‘So Germans don’t know how frightening revolution is.’
***
While Park Chan-hyeok was dreaming of revolution,
Kim Seon-myeong’s edited match highlight video was uploaded to the community forum.
[Title: Anyone seen Union Berlin highlights?]
└ There’s highlight footage from a fourth-division match? Where can I watch it?
└ You can watch it on Union Berlin’s website.
└ Thanks, thanks.
└ Wow, damn lol Union Berlin absolutely smashed them 5-0.
└ I found this more eye-catching than the result.
└ (Park Chan-hyeok pulling a card from inside his jacket .gif)
└ Look at that deadpan expression lol
└ Why the hell is a Yu-Gi-Oh! card coming out of his jacket pocket lol
└ If I were the opposing manager, I’d run over and hit him right away.
└ You’d fold in half before you could even hit him.
└ Guys, you wouldn’t know because you didn’t see him in person, but Park Chan-hyeok is insanely built;;
└ He didn’t look that big in the video.
└ That’s because he’s standing next to football players.
└ Isn’t Park Chan-hyeok shorter than Tuchel too?
└ Tuchel’s over 190 cm, idiot;;
└ But whose voice is the commentator’s?
└ It’s not Park Chan-hyeok’s voice, so he must be a Korean intern.
└ They’re making the intern do commentary now too, lol
└ Ahem, the textbook definition of a small-time outfit.
***
A few days after the Union Berlin and MSV Neuruppin match ended,
Thomas Tuchel was safely discharged from the hospital.
“What’s this?”
“Tofu. In Korea, we usually give tofu to someone who’s come back from an unpleasant ordeal.”
“I see.”
Tuchel returned to his position as Union Berlin’s manager,
and I had to experience something utterly absurd.
‘What?’
Tuchel had excluded me from training for the next match.
‘Is he keeping me in check?’
Apparently, the flood of praise from the media had made Tuchel start keeping me in check.
It was disgusting and petty, but to survive under the dictator Tuchel, I had no choice but to suppress my ego and stay humble.
“Thomas Tuchel, you must respect me.”
“…I already respect you enough, don’t I?”
“You need to respect me even more than you do now.”
But despite all my efforts,
I was left off the squad for the next match.
Neither as a player nor as an assistant coach was my name on the list.
‘This is wrong!’
I couldn’t stand Thomas Tuchel’s tyranny any longer.
“Thomas, are you afraid of my growth?”
I went straight to the manager’s office and confronted Thomas Tuchel.
Then Thomas Tuchel replied with an incredulous expression.
“You’re suspended.”
“…Ah. Right.”
I had been suspended, hadn’t I.