Chapter 44
***
Son Hongmin.
In name and in fact, the undisputed GOAT in South Korean football history.
No Korean—no, no Asian—has surpassed the status he held, and none appeared for quite some time after his retirement.
Maybe someday someone will produce a brief stretch of form that tops him, but it would certainly be difficult for anyone to be judged as having truly surpassed him.
Even in the season called the worst slump in history, he still recorded 11 goals and 11 assists—a legendary player,
and even when his teammates left the club in pursuit of trophies.
He stayed at Tottenham to the very end and, in the end, delivered a title—a Tottenham legend and the very embodiment of romance, Tottenham's eternal captain.
‘Ahh. I must worship him.’
Looking at anecdotes about Son Hongmin like this made it clear he was a serious talent monster.
Of course, you can't deny Son Hongmin's hard work. But without talent, the level he reached would have been an impossible realm to touch.
Saying Son Hongmin has no talent is like calling Park Jisung a hard worker.
Unfortunately, people looked only at Park Jisung's face and decided he was a hard worker.
Thanks to future Manchester United becoming Manggu, people tend to look down on Manchester United as a team, but just going to Manchester United at this time is enough to prove you're a genius.
Well, anyway.
According to a very well-known anecdote about Son Hongmin, he supposedly played football alone until middle school. In truth, that was basically another way of saying he was a monster talent.
In future Spain, they try to give promising players as much match experience as possible rather than basic technique training. After all, there’s a limit to how much technical growth can be built through practice.
According to a Spanish coach I once got friendly with, once you become an adult, performance changes depending on how quickly you read and judge the flow of the game. He said the fundamentals most players have are all about the same.
Well. Personally, I think that's only half right.
‘There's someone like me.’
No matter how much basic training I did, there was still someone—me—whose skills wouldn't improve.
It was obvious that the Spanish coach had deleted the part about 'professional players in the same league.'
Well. That doesn't mean match experience isn't important.
In fact, Spain continued to produce excellent players after that.
In that sense, I could glimpse a fragment of Son Hongmin's talent.
He was the kind of case where, despite having very little match experience until middle school, he caught the eye of a German scout and even succeeded in studying abroad.
‘Of course, in Korea the situation is so severe that promising prospects get chewed up and spit out.’
Thinking about it a little differently, maybe training alone until middle school was actually a blessing for Korean football. He was safe from the risk of injury, after all.
Anyway.
With the referee's whistle, the match between Dongnam High School and Jaeim High School began.
I took my eyes off Son Hongmin and slowly looked over the players on the field.
It was too strange to be called simple pressure.
A subtle feeling only someone who had gone through the overseas study program for elite student athletes could sense.
It was clear the student players were just going through the motions because of the coach's unfair orders.
“…Did you perhaps tell them I came?”
I asked the association staff member to make sure.
“Uh…. Yes. If there's a player you like, we'll need to ask the coaches for cooperation as well.”
And I was impressed by the association staff member's reply.
‘Wow….’
It seemed these people couldn't really grasp the situation on the ground.
Still, something felt a little odd.
Judging by the chairman's personality, he didn't seem like the type who would just sit back and let it happen.
‘Who cut out the part that was supposed to be reported to the chairman?’
It was a very reasonable suspicion.
***
Contrary to Park Chanhyeok's expectation of 'deliberate trolling,' unfortunately the two teams were taking the game seriously. After all, this match was the semifinal of the tournament.
Even if that weren't the case, the current coaches of Dongnam High School and Jaeim High School weren't the type to pressure their players.
First of all, Dongnam High School had no pressure regarding results.
As a high school under a pro youth team, Dongnam High School focused more on developing prospects than on results.
And Jaeim High School was the same.
Although Jaeim High School wasn't under a pro youth team, the Jaeim High coach was a man who sincerely wished for the development of Korean football.
He wasn't the petty sort who would hold promising players' futures hostage just to protect his own position.
Anyway, the students from both high schools were doing their best in the match under their coaches' instructions.
‘If I do well today, that means I get to go to Germany, right?’
‘If I go to Germany, can I date a blonde beauty?’
‘Hehe. German beauty. Date. Me.’
The real problem was the players' mindset.
Unfortunately, the more the players tried to do well, the more tension built up in their bodies.
That was why the players were showing their worst form to the point that Park Chanhyeok suspected deliberate trolling.
***
Meanwhile, at that moment.
‘I want to play too.’
Son Hongmin was watching the match from the bench.
Unless he was overwhelmingly better than the other player in the same position, naturally the second-years or third-years had to come first.
The same was true even for high schools under pro teams.
‘By the way, is he really the chief coach? He doesn't look that much older than me.’
Son Hongmin looked at Park Chanhyeok, who was watching the game in comfortable clothes unlike ordinary scouts. He found it strange that someone who didn't seem much older than him was the chief coach of a club. In fact, the two were only five years apart.
If it hadn't been for Union Berlin, whose finances had collapsed and who were on the verge of destruction, such rapid promotion would have been impossible. In reality, if he had taken a normal route, Park Chanhyeok would currently be grinding away as the most junior youth coach.
Anyway.
‘Come to think of it, that senior said he was also a candidate for the overseas study program for elite players, didn't he?’
Maybe because he had seen a successful case produced by that program.
Thanks to that, Son Hongmin's determination to shine in this match and be selected as a program candidate burned even hotter.
‘If I get in here, I can make it too, right?’
And the conditions for this elite player overseas study program were better than usual this time as well.
Normally, the elite player overseas study program sent players abroad for six months, but this time it would run for twelve months at the Union Berlin chief coach's request.
Chief Coach Park Chanhyeok had argued that if he was going abroad to learn and actually take something away, at least twelve months were necessary.
Association Chairman Jeong Jun accepted Park Chanhyeok's proposal despite internal resistance from the association.
It took quite a bit of effort for the football association to persuade FIFA, but fortunately Chairman Jeong Jun still had a tiny bit of influence left inside FIFA.
And so, a one-year study-abroad period was decided upon.
‘A year is enough.’
Son Hongmin thought to himself.
He was sure that in a year, he could show the talent he had and secure a contract.
‘If I'm lacking, I can just work that much harder.’
Son Hongmin stared hard at Dongnam High School's coach, pouring all of his desire to get into the match into that look.
Was it because they could feel Son Hongmin's burning enthusiasm?
“Whew, you really want to play that badly? I'll put Son Hongmin in, so warm up!”
Dongnam High School's coach pointed to Son Hongmin as the substitute.
The moment the order came down, Son Hongmin immediately started warming up.
And at that moment.
Son Hongmin couldn't help but flinch in surprise.
Because Chief Coach Park Chanhyeok was looking at him with a creepy, perverted gaze.
***
32 minutes into the second half.
‘Oh. I'm finally getting in.’
Son Hongmin was subbed into the match.
Clearly, as if promising seedlings were different from birth, Son Hongmin displayed outstanding play the moment he stepped onto the pitch.
The curling shot he attempted from the area that would later be called Hongmin Zone was quite impressive.
But personally, I think Son Hongmin's strongest weapon is his two-footedness.
In fact, the two-footedness of Korean players could be called one of the old coaching philosophies of Korean football.
They emphasized using both feet and trained players so they could become proficient with both feet from a young age.
It is not the right kind of training for developing a player.
‘Actually, even two-footedness requires talent.’
Two-footedness was itself an area that required talent.
Son Hongmin definitely had outstanding instincts in that regard.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible for both feet to possess world-class kicking power.
In this world, if you gain one thing, you have to give up another.
Didn't the manga The Alchemist of Steel even have a law called 'equivalent exchange'?
Gaining two-footedness is basically the same as losing the time you would normally devote to your dominant foot.
In Son Hongmin's case, thanks to the synergy with his own talent, he had the best possible weapon—'two-footedness'—without any debuff, so that was a huge relief.
“That player looks good.”
“Son Hongmin? He's a good prospect. He's one of the players Seoul CF is currently paying attention to.”
I watched Son Hongmin's performance from the stands and nodded in satisfaction.
For now, the player I would absolutely bring to Union Berlin as a study-abroad student was Son Hongmin. There was no room for argument there.
His professionalism, which would help unlock his potential, was also outstanding.
Considering the grueling training he'd received from a young age, Son Hongmin's patience was a given.
“By any chance, how many study-abroad students can I pick?”
“If you could take two or three, we'd be grateful.”
I nodded, thinking that seemed like a suitable number.
Bringing as many study-abroad students as possible wasn't bad, but if I did that, Union Berlin would have trouble managing them.
I looked at the players on the field with a satisfied expression.
‘My precious…!’’
South Korea was my own little treasure chest.