Chapter 7
***
Stuttgart did have an airport, but there was no direct flight from Korea.
We got off at Frankfurt am Main International Airport and took a train to Stuttgart.
The first few days after arriving in Stuttgart were so busy I couldn't catch my breath.
I followed the stadium guide around and learned about the club's history. Since most of the staff working there were Stuttgart fans, the employee's tone as he explained things was full of pride in the club.
“...and as a result, we finished as runners-up last season.”
VfB Stuttgart was a somewhat peculiar club.
After a financial crisis forced the team's core players to be sold off, Magath took over and pulled them out of relegation trouble, and last season the youngsters came good, helping Stuttgart finish second in the league.
The media, seeing Stuttgart revived by its youngsters, were calling it Magath's Kindergarten after the manager.
Come to think of it, financial crisis sounded like something I'd heard before.
‘Isn't this the Dortmund of the future?’
In fact, my internet search showed that not only Stuttgart but several other teams were in financial trouble. Dortmund, which we knew all too well, went without saying, and so did Arminia Bielefeld and Hansa Rostock. Most mid- to lower-table clubs were suffering financial crises.
[Repeated financial crises among clubs? Unstable revenue models and excessive spending must be fixed….]
[The Bundesliga's meager broadcasting fees: the answer is overseas expansion.]
The media pointed to the Bundesliga's unstable revenue model and excessive spending as the cause, but
as a foreigner, I figured Germany's economy had something to do with it too.
After all, Bundesliga clubs tended to be closely tied to their local communities, and companies based in the home region often sponsored the clubs.
So when the local economy soured, fans' and sponsors' wallets naturally closed. That led to club financial crises.
Germany's economy in the early 2000s didn't seem to be in good shape. There were lingering aftereffects of reunification, and the collapse of the dot-com bubble seemed to have dampened the investment market too.
[Gerhard Schröder pushes massive welfare and labor-market reforms.]
[Labor reform or labor sabotage? Gerhard Schröder driving workers out of the workplace.]
It seemed like German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was on the news talking about reforms.
That's how bad Germany's economy currently was.
‘No wonder investment immigration seemed to be happening so quickly.’
There must have been background factors like this behind how easy it was to immigrate to Germany.
In my previous life, I was so young I didn't know Germany had such difficulties.
Well, that didn't mean I thought Germany would collapse.
‘Wasn't there a famous celebrity who once said, “A program that's really in crisis doesn't say it's in crisis on TV.”?’
And as far as I knew, Germany had been a powerhouse up until I regressed. It suffered negative growth after COVID, but still had tremendous underlying strength.
“This is our training facility here at Stuttgart. Chan-hyuk will train here too.”
Anyway, while the staff member was introducing the training facilities,
“Ah, over there is where the first team trains. It'd be nice if Chan-hyuk could train there someday too.”
a familiar face came into view.
‘Huh…? That person is…?’
I encountered an unexpected person at the Stuttgart training ground.
It was none other than the German football legend Philipp Lahm.
***
Philipp Lahm, on loan from Bayern Munich to Stuttgart.
He was adapting quite well to life in Stuttgart.
That was thanks to the Stuttgart players, who had caught glimpses of Philipp Lahm's talent and treated him well. Besides, Philipp Lahm wasn't the type with a particularly prickly personality in the first place.
“What's an Asian guy doing here?”
At Andreas Hinkel's words, Stuttgart's right back, the players' gazes turned toward the area outside the pitch.
There stood an Asian boy and one Stuttgart staff member.
Seeing that, the teammates started whispering among themselves.
“Did they land a new sponsor? I heard the club was in financial trouble.”
“Idiot, didn't they say a football study-abroad student from Korea was coming today?”
“You mean he's coming here to study football abroad?”
Philipp Lahm tried to ignore it as much as possible and focus on training.
But today, more than any other day, he simply couldn't concentrate on practice.
“How old is he if he came here to study abroad?”
“I heard he's 16 now.”
“He's young.”
“Yeah, young. And you're old.”
“And you're bald.”
“You little bastard?”
“You said it first, you bastard!”
“You idiots, go fight somewhere else. And don't even think about being racist.”
The teammates were noisy, sure,
but more than that,
‘Why do you keep staring at me like that? It's uncomfortable.’
because the Asian football student was staring at him intensely.
***
Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to greet Philipp Lahm or the first-team players.
Since the opening match was just around the corner, we had to focus on drills to improve team chemistry.
Still, just watching their practice was helpful enough.
After watching the training session,
even though he was young, Philipp Lahm was still Philipp Lahm.
Not only his actual ability but also the stats shown in the scouter were quite outstanding.
[Name: Philipp Lahm.]
Current stats: ★★★☆☆☆
Potential: ★★★★★★
One-line evaluation: Can you feel the difference in talent, human?
He was the most talented player I'd seen so far.
It was the first time I'd seen that many stars.
I figured that six stars or more meant world-class. If you had three stars or more, you were at Bundesliga level.
‘And what's with that one-line evaluation?’
Anyway, Philipp Lahm was playing left back at Stuttgart.
“Is that player a Stuttgart player too?”
I was wondering why a player I knew to be a one-club man was playing at Stuttgart,
“Ah, Philipp is on loan from Bayern Munich.”
according to the staff member beside me, he wasn't a Stuttgart player but a loan signing.
In any case, during the ensuing practice match, Philipp Lahm was showing excellent form at left back too. He calmly adjusted the players' positions and didn't receive a single correction from the coach throughout training.
I suddenly found myself thinking how convenient it would be to have one player like that.
‘He seems to be a little short on fighting spirit. But that doesn't seem bad either.’
A player who gets fired up by the crowd's cheers and performs beyond his limits is good, but a player like Philipp Lahm who can calmly survey the pitch is important too.
Someone has to keep the players from getting too excited during a match.
In fact, instructions from a coach outside the touchline could only go so far. That's why it was important to have a player on the field who could take on that role.
‘He's captain material through and through.’
Anyway, Stuttgart's practice match ended, and I greeted Magath, the first-team manager.
What was a little surprising was that even Magath knew my name.
“Pwachanyeok? Is that right?”
“...Just call me Pak.”
I had no choice but to respond awkwardly to Magath's words.
It was so carefully pronounced that I almost felt bad for laughing.
“I watched the video. Thomas said you come highly recommended.”
Apparently, not only Thomas Tuchel but Magath also had a positive opinion of my football study-abroad stint.
If things went well, making my first-team debut might not be a dream.
‘I don't know about making an impact in the first team, but maybe I can at least make my debut?’
After Magath's words of encouragement, the day's schedule came to an end.
‘...But why didn't they introduce me to Tuchel?’
Either way, my first impression of Stuttgart was better than I'd expected.
***
That evening, I called my parents.
“Hello?”
“Dad, it's me.”
“Yeah, are you doing well?”
“Uh. Yes, I'm doing well.”
“All right then. Phone bills are expensive, so let's stop here.”
Among my family, I only managed to greet my father,
Click—.
“Huh?”
because my father had cut the call short, saying phone bills were expensive and getting straight to the point.
Honestly, let me be blunt.
Unlike my younger sibling, who had been a famous entertainer in my previous life, our family still hadn't shaken off a small-minded, middle-class outlook.
Just watching my sibling invest their entire fortune in Apple made my hands and feet tremble.
If I had had a smartphone, I'd have spent every day checking stocks.
I wouldn't have been able to live my daily life properly.
‘Little sibling, I'll trust you….’
Anyway, if I lost money, I had no choice but to believe my sibling's promise that they'd redebut as an idol and earn it back.
In any case, today was the day of my first meeting with Thomas Tuchel.
In more ways than one, this was an exciting moment.
It was the Thomas Tuchel who had won the Champions League and lifted the Big Ears trophy, and had coached big clubs like Dortmund, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munich.
He'd made a huge mess of things at Bayern Munich, but even so, that Tuchel had singled me out.
I was caught up in the hope that Thomas Tuchel might have glimpsed potential in me that even the scouter hadn't picked up.
And then, a little while later.
The first meeting with Thomas Tuchel was more intense than I'd imagined.
“Scheiße. You're the worst. Why the hell are you even playing football?”
Maybe it was just my imagination,
but the scouter window blinked unpleasantly, as if sneering at Thomas Tuchel's words.