Chapter 60
***
[Union Berlin's preseason schedule comes to an end.]
[Union Berlin finishes the preseason with 2 wins and 1 loss.]
[Union Berlin impresses against Bayern Munich, with experts upgrading them from relegation favorites to survival hopefuls.]
The preseason match against Bayern Munich went well.
Though they still couldn't overcome the difference in class and lost.
[Jannik Voigt, post-match interview... "I think it was a good experience."]
[Franck Ribéry gives Union Berlin a positive review. "The manager seems to have built a good team."]
Union Berlin's attackers succeeded in gaining confidence that their style of play could work even against Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich.
'The defenders are the problem, though....'
Well... the stone-faced defenders were a little worrying.
Once the second-division matches actually begin, the difference in quality would be painfully obvious.
'The guy you went up against was Franck Ribéry, you know.'
Anyway, the one who got the most attention in this preseason match against Bayern Munich was Son Hongmin.
Son Hongmin scored against Bayern Munich.
Expectations for Son Hongmin in Korea were higher than ever.
That quickly translated into jersey sales.
[Son Hongmin, Union Berlin jersey sales surge.]
└ Chanhyuk-hyung, I'm trusting you, so I'm buying Hongmin's jersey. Just don't actually bench him!
└ He scored against Bayern Munich, so there's no way you'd bench him.
└ I bought a Thomas Meyer jersey too.
└ Dude, wtf, didn't you think about customs duty?
└ ...There's customs duty on jerseys too?
└ Idiot lol, pay an extra 23% in customs duty lol.
Maybe it was thanks to Thomas Meyer helping with Son Hongmin's assist in the first preseason match.
What's impressive is that Thomas Meyer's jersey sales also went up.
Anyway.
The popularity rankings, based on jersey sales, were as follows: Voigt was naturally No. 1, Nago was No. 2, and Son Hongmin had climbed to No. 3.
It's weird that my name made the list even though I'm not even a player.
This isn't me being full of myself or some kind of narcissist.
'The fans wanted it!'
More fans than I expected wanted jerseys with my name on them.
[Title: But does Union Berlin even have a player named Park?]
└ It's Coach Park Chanhyuk, you idiot.
└ You could've just explained it nicely, so why are you cursing and making a scene?
My jersey sold well in Korea and even in Japan. Though less than in those two countries, it was still selling decently in China too.
'...Why?'
It felt a little strange to see the three Northeast Asian countries united over just me.
Looking at the jersey sales, I resolved that next year's preseason absolutely had to be in Northeast Asia.
'I'll have to bring in some prospects from Japan and Korea.'
Personally, I think I'd recruit fullbacks from Japan more than attackers.
Korea's fullback pool is in shambles, while weirdly enough, neighboring Japan keeps churning them out.
'Wasn't the one who played for Inter Yuto Nagatomo...?'
Not only at Inter, but Japanese fullbacks were showing up in the Bundesliga too.
That was in contrast to Korea, where winger talent was pouring out like crazy around the same time.
Well, that didn't mean Japan had no attacking talent to bring in.
'Shinji Kagawa went to Dortmund in 2010...'
As far as I remembered, Shinji Kagawa liked Korean idols, so I'd try to tempt him with the promise of appearing on a variety show and meeting idols.
'So Korea and Japan are sorted like this... then what's left is China.'
In fact, a request had recently come in from the Chinese Football Association through the Korean Football Association.
Like Japan, they wanted me to find prospects in their own country and bring them over. They even said they wouldn't take a transfer fee.
Honestly, it would be a lie to say I wasn't tempted by the Chinese market.
If I sold just one jersey to each person in China, that's 1.3 billion jerseys.
Of course, most Chinese people wouldn't be able to buy one because of income issues.
Still, couldn't I sell at least a few million?
On top of that, I was curious.
China is where people say even Messi and Ronaldo are out there tilling fields.
'I wonder if they really exist.'
Looking at what the future Chinese national team might look like, I was a little puzzled, but considering the population, they might really be out there farming somewhere.
'But if it's China, don't I need to look through at least tens of thousands of players? I'd go blind from scouting.'
Well... I should think a bit more about recruiting Chinese players.
Honestly, if the team had Korean, Chinese, and Japanese players all together, I feel like they'd fight every day.
***
A few days after the Bayern Munich and Union Berlin match ended.
Some not-so-good news reached Union Berlin.
Toni Kroos had refused to come to Union Berlin on loan.
I even tried persuading him over the phone myself, but Toni Kroos was adamant. He'd made up his mind to go on loan to Leverkusen, a first-division club, rather than second-division Union Berlin.
Bayern Munich also preferred sending him on loan to a first-division club over a second-division one.
I tried pestering Mats Hummels as a fallback, like settling for a chicken instead of a pheasant.
Mats Hummels, like Toni Kroos, also refused Union Berlin's loan offer.
Although both players flat-out rejected me, I still thanked Thomas Tuchel that day.
Because I knew Thomas Tuchel had looked out for me and Union Berlin.
In the first place, without Thomas Tuchel, making calls to those two would have been impossible.
'Sure enough, maybe because we're in the second division, it's rough to sign players.'
The gap between the first and second divisions was that big.
Many players preferred the top flights of Portugal or the Netherlands over Germany's second division. That's how much the spotlight differed between the first and second tiers.
If Union Berlin had its own top-flight history and prestige, maybe it'd be different, but unfortunately Union Berlin had no history of ever making it to the first division.
It got to the point where I couldn't sign not just Toni Kroos and Mats Hummels, but other players I knew as well, because the club lacked prestige.
Come to think of it, being able to sign Robert Lewandowski had been pure luck too. Poland was still a peripheral league back then, and he was playing in the third division because of a knee injury.
The fact that he'd also been poorly rated as a child because of his short height and slight build had become a stroke of luck for Union Berlin.
'...My Toni Kroos.'
It stung a little, but there was nothing I could do.
Even Manchester City, in the first division, had to spend far more money than other teams to recruit players.
To bring in the players I wanted, I decided to raise the club's reputation.
'The Champions League....'
If we ever get there someday, that would solve everything.
***
After the Toni Kroos loan fell through, time passed quickly.
I not only handled my duties as manager, but also attended the club's management meetings as a major shareholder.
Union Berlin's current ownership is basically split into four big chunks.
Our family, Chairman Dirk Zingler, the supporters, and others.
Our family currently holds about 32% of Union Berlin.
Thanks to two large-scale investments, our family had more of the club than Chairman Dirk Zingler.
And there was the GL Group as a friendly shareholder.
The GL Group also held a small stake in Union Berlin.
After seeing Son Hongmin score against Bayern Munich, they decided to build a new youth training facility.
Honestly, if our family wanted to, we could have taken the chairmanship from Dirk Zingler, but we didn't bother.
The guy was more capable than I'd expected.
In the original history, he not only pulled Union Berlin up to the first division but also took them to the Champions League.
'The fact that he appointed me as manager makes it obvious.'
And his love for the club was real enough that he'd poured nearly his entire fortune into it.
Anyway, if Thomas Tuchel's Union Berlin was a three-headed Cerberus, now it'd be more like a two-headed ogre.
That meant the process for approving good ideas became much simpler.
As soon as the meeting ended that day, I went straight to Kim Sunmyeong, who handled Union Berlin's IT.
Because I'd come up with a good idea for improving Union Berlin's website.
“Sunmyeong, do you have any Japanese friends?”
“Why do you need a Japanese friend?”
“I think I need to add a Japanese translation to the site.”
“I do have a friend who can translate that much.”
“And while we're at it, can we make the players' jersey-sales rankings visible in Korea and Japan too?”
“…What are you trying to pull now?”
“If we pit Korea and Japan against each other through jersey sales, wouldn't revenue double? And when one country takes the No. 1 spot in sales, that country's flag could appear on the other site's page.”
“…Are you the devil?”
After getting a contemptuous look from Kim Sunmyeong, I quietly fell silent.
'...I was even considering bringing in Chinese players too and making it a Korea-China-Japan competition, but I guess I shouldn't say that.'