Chapter 40
***
‘I’m screwed.’
Life has moments like that.
The moment greed blinds you and you lose your reason.
I did get thrown into a holding cell as the price for losing my reason.
Still, it didn’t seem like the worst possible outcome.
“Oh dear. Coach, I’m sorry. Leon, you apologize properly too.”
“S-sorry.”
Thanks to the fact that Leon’s father was a Union Berlin fan, his identity was verified and I was able to get out of the holding cell.
That’s right.
Leon was mixed Korean and German.
‘No wonder I kept being drawn to him. Is this what the pull of the same ethnicity feels like?’
In most mixed families, the father was German, but in Leon’s family, the mother was German.
Well... I could see why.
Leon’s father was tall and quite handsome.
For the record, Leon’s father had only recently become a Union Berlin fan.
He’d joined during the wave of Berlin Koreans who, thanks to my performances, flooded into Union Berlin as new members.
Anyway, Leon’s father didn’t find it strange that I knew Leon’s name. Among Koreans living in Berlin, everyone knew everyone through one connection or another.
“Oh dear. It looks like someone told the coach about our Leon.”
He must have thought some Korean had told our family about Leon.
‘Our family keeps its distance from the Korean community, so we don’t really have much overlap...’
It wasn’t true, but I didn’t bother correcting him.
Anyway.
Perhaps because we shared the same Korean roots, we quickly hit it off.
I guess this is why they say you should be more cautious around people of your own ethnicity overseas.
For some reason, they felt even more welcoming and familiar.
To the point that we could openly share the secrets hidden in our hearts.
“I was worried because he’s such an introvert and can’t seem to get along with the other kids. If it’s a place with a Korean coach, I can trust you with him.”
Since I’d already approached too hastily and caused a misunderstanding, I decided to take my time and persuade them slowly.
“If you have time, I’ll invite you to a home game, so please come watch with your family.”
It seemed I’d already passed the ninety-percent mark toward signing my first six-star prospect.
***
[Union Berlin head coach Park Chan-hyuk mistaken for a kidnapper while scouting a youth player, ends up in a holding cell.]
Since his time in the holding cell had been a harmless little episode, it didn’t become a huge issue in Germany. After all, he was only the head coach of a third-division club.
‘Would it have been different if I’d been the manager?’
Well. Anyway.
Unlike Germany, where people just shrugged it off as something that happened, it became a fairly big issue in Korea. After all, in Korea my name recognition was higher than that of most Bundesliga managers.
[Title: Park Chan-hyuk’s latest status.]
(Article photo of Park Chan-hyuk in the holding cell.jpg)
Apparently he’d been caught by the police after being mistaken for a kidnapper while trying to scout a youth player. lol
└ ?? Doesn’t anyone know what Park Chan-hyuk looks like?
└ How would a German know the face of some third-division head coach lol
└ I heard the kid was half Korean?
└ Then why don’t they know him?
└ Maybe they just don’t;;
└ Then is Park Chan-hyuk still in the holding cell?
└ The German government should release Park Chan-hyuk!
└ Didn’t he already get out?
└ He got out faster than I thought.
└ His identity was confirmed, after all.
└ A head coach getting mistaken for a kidnapper and arrested while scouting youth players is so absurd lol
└ But doesn’t Union Berlin have scouts?
└ They probably don’t even need one. Just use Park Chan-hyuk instead.
└ Damn, a head coach who actually does the legwork ㅠㅠ
Even now, posts were still being uploaded from time to time.
‘Hmm. I thought the scout team would have something to say, but they aren’t saying anything.’
The scout team could have been just as upset at having their work encroached upon, but as I’d mentioned many times, Union Berlin is a small club.
The scout team was currently busy combing through all of Germany to find the players Thomas Tuchel had set as conditions. Recently, they even asked for more staff because of a manpower shortage, but apparently the request was rejected for budget reasons.
‘Come to think of it, they asked me for help too. I’m glad I helped them then.’
And more than anything, the part of the club that rated me the highest was the scout team. They thought highly of my eye for talent after I discovered Yanic Voigt.
‘That was all thanks to the scouts, though....’
Of course, I didn’t bother correcting the misunderstanding. This current evaluation would become an important asset when I took on a managerial role in the future.
If data like this kept piling up one by one, maybe someday I’d stop trying to persuade people with words and just say it was intuition.
Anyway.
The next day.
Union Berlin played an away match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s reserve team, and lost.
[Union Berlin loses 1-0 to Bayer 04 Leverkusen.]
In many ways, it was an unlucky match. A lucky goal scored early in the first half ended up being the winning goal.
[Leverkusen’s lucky goal held up as the winner....]
Union Berlin kept hammering away at Leverkusen’s goal, but when it mattered most they showed their bad luck by hitting the woodwork three times.
[St. Pauli loses 2-1 to Hamburger SV II.]
The fortunate thing was that St. Pauli also recorded a defeat. Thanks to that, there was no change in the league standings.
A few days after Union Berlin returned from the away trip.
- Hello, sir. This is Park Chan-hyuk, head coach of Union Berlin. Would you happen to be free for the next game?
We invited Leon’s family to a home game.
Thanks to me introducing Leon as a once-in-a-lifetime talent, the club’s interest in his family was quite high.
Meanwhile, while we were playing away, Leon had reportedly been seriously considering quitting football despite his incredible talent.
It was a matter related to racism.
Leon hadn’t said anything, but that only made it all the more obvious to everyone.
Unfortunately, this still wasn’t an era when every club paid much attention to its youth teams. In the future, even youth players’ price tags would skyrocket, and proper youth management systems would be introduced, but for now many clubs still just let their youth players run wild.
‘Well, even in the future, most poor clubs will raise them pretty much the same way they do now.’
Their policy was simple. A talented player would stand out on his own.
Not an entirely wrong way of thinking. If a player has talent, they’ll find a way to stand out somehow.
But that only applies when the skin color is the same.
A player like Leon had outstanding talent, but if the youth coach was a racist, there was no way for him to prove himself to the club. The higher-ups in the club usually judged players by the numbers written in scout reports.
‘Thanks to that, an opportunity is coming our way too.’
It was unfortunate for Leon, but fortunate for Union Berlin. The chance to recruit a player with six-star potential had come our way.
‘His professionalism isn’t bad either, considering how young he is.’
It seemed he’d matured mentally, probably because of the discrimination he’d suffered at such a young age.
If someone gave Leon just a little push, he seemed like he could grow very quickly.
‘A future world-class talent factory? That’d be me, Park Chan-hyuk.’
Anyway.
After hearing about Leon, the Union Berlin staff were even angrier than I was.
“Those fucking bastards!”
Surprisingly, the one who exploded with the most anger was Dirk Zingler, the club’s longest-serving chairman.
He persuaded Thomas Tuchel to let Leon greet a few of Union Berlin’s players. Dirk Zingler’s “You fucking Nazi?” was enough to make even the mighty Thomas Tuchel throw up his hands.
“Tsk. What a waste of time, doing this right before the match.”
Thomas Tuchel grumbled unhappily about the situation, but when the atmosphere among the players who met Leon improved, he quietly shut his mouth.
“Thank you for inviting me!”
I smiled and patted Leon on the head.
“Enjoy the game.”
“Yes!”
Wow. He’s bright-eyed, sharp, and looks like he’d be good at football.
I completely wiped from my mind the fact that I’d ended up in a holding cell because of Leon.
If I could recruit a future world-class player with six-star potential, spending a little time in the holding cell was nothing more than a trivial matter.
***
After meeting Park Chan-hyuk, Han Leon looked into the club called Union Berlin. Thanks to his father being a Union Berlin member, he was able to get a variety of information about the club.
Union Berlin was an attractive team with a passionate fan culture.
Still at an age untouched by the grime of the world, he was overflowing with feeling.
It was a time when a child’s unique sense of romance existed.
‘People joined forces and overcame hardship? That’s awesome!’
Seen through that child’s eyes, Union Berlin was no different from a club out of a fairy tale.
Han Leon headed to Union Berlin with excitement.
But Union Berlin’s first impression left Han Leon disappointed.
The club’s facilities were far too outdated.
But the disappointment didn’t last long.
The moment the fans filled the stands, the atmosphere in the stadium changed in an instant.
Union Berlin’s outdated facilities were swallowed up by the fans’ blazing passion.
“Yanic Voigt!!”
“Fussballgott (Football God)!!”
As soon as the players entered the stadium, the stadium announcer began calling out the lineup over the PA. It was a little different from a normal announcer introduction, but it was a special Union Berlin tradition signifying that every player was a football god.
“Daniel Teixeira!”
“Fussballgott (Football God)!!”
Han Leon stared blankly at the sight of every player’s name being called.
“…Dad. I want to play football here too.”
It was the moment a boy’s dream was born.