Chapter 8
***
‘I wonder if the video I watched was just a highlights reel?’
Thomas Tuchel, watching Park Chan-hyuk in the practice match, was frustrated.
Unlike the video, there was no sign at all that he was actively using his teammates.
“Scheiße(fuck). This is awful. Why the hell are you even playing football?”
After unleashing a harsh reprimand at Park Chan-hyuk, he went on to give him some warm advice.
“Use your teammates more actively. Your tactical understanding is excellent, so tell them where to position themselves.”
And then, from Park Chan-hyuk’s answer, Thomas Tuchel realized something.
“Yes. Understood.”
“Oh, damn. Your German pronunciation is fucking awful, so just speak English.”
That it wasn’t that Park Chan-hyuk wasn’t giving instructions to the defenders—it was just a pronunciation issue.
***
The first meeting with Thomas Tuchel had been the worst, but Tuchel and I became close surprisingly quickly.
A manager knows another manager’s mind best.
I won Tuchel over by doing things that would please him from a coach’s point of view.
Well, even if it hadn’t been a play to win his favor, I still would have had no trouble getting close to Tuchel.
We had quite a lot in common.
The biggest common ground was that both of us were crazy about football.
Anyway, once we’d grown close, Tuchel invited me to his house, and I went over and was treated to a meal.
Honestly, it’s a little rude for me to say this when I was the one being treated, but the meal wasn’t good.
“Mm. Your wife’s cooking is excellent.”
“I’m not married.”
Maybe because Tuchel still hadn’t married yet, he cooked for himself.
‘No wonder... it didn’t taste good.’
Anyway, we discussed tactics late into the night that evening.
And just as it got late and I was about to head home.
“Chan-hyuk.”
Thomas Tuchel gave me serious advice.
“You probably won’t have a place in the first team. How about preparing to become a football coach from now on?”
From Tuchel’s expression, I could tell he was serious and not just trying to provoke me, but his social skills really were fucking terrible.
‘Tuchel, Tuchel—seriously, is it really okay to say something like that straight to a prospect you’ve known for less than a week?’
If I had been an ordinary prospect, I might have been hurt by Tuchel’s words and thrown a fit, but I had already once despaired over my own talent in my previous life and given up halfway through.
Compared with the first time, when I’d agonized and lost my appetite, giving up the second time was a little easier.
Well, from the start, I hadn’t expected to become a great football player.
The scout window blinked, as if asking what that earlier show of anticipation had been about.
That was just in case. I never seriously thought I had some amazing talent.
Anyway.
“Sure. I thought coaching suited me better than playing anyway.”
I nodded obediently at Tuchel’s suggestion.
I’d already expected it when I started playing again after my regression, but it still stung a little.
***
Thomas Tuchel talked with Park Chan-hyuk for a long time.
Perhaps because of that, he genuinely regretted Chan-hyuk’s talent.
If Park Chan-hyuk’s athleticism had just been a little better, he might have become a great player.
But unfortunately, God had not given Park Chan-hyuk athleticism.
Especially in the practice match, the sight of him tackling long after the ball had passed was shocking in itself.
It’s awkward to say this, but when the U19 team’s backup striker faced Chan-hyuk, it looked like he’d been possessed by Ronaldo.
Watching Park Chan-hyuk’s horror show in the practice match, Tuchel couldn’t understand how he had managed to live as a footballer all this time, and he couldn’t hold back his curiosity, so he asked outright.
The answer he got was beyond shocking.
“So you’re saying you weren’t reacting to attackers at all—you’ve just been defending by anticipation the whole time?”
“Yes...”
“Are you insane?”
Even world-famous defenders sometimes intercept the ball by anticipating a play, but you can’t defend everything that way.
The risk of failure was just too high.
‘His defensive stability is too poor—he won’t succeed in the first team.’
He could be a regular in the third division and make the bench in the second, though.
Anything beyond that would clearly be difficult.
At the same time that he felt sorry, Tuchel started to like this little Asian kid even more.
Because what Chan-hyuk had chosen was a method only a football maniac could use.
So Tuchel gave Chan-hyuk advice with complete sincerity.
“How about preparing to become a football coach from now on?”
And thankfully, Chan-hyuk accepted it without misunderstanding what Tuchel meant.
***
I’d decided to prepare for my coaching license, but since I’d come to Germany as a player in name, I still had to do my best as a footballer.
Once the season started, I played a key role under Thomas Tuchel, the Stuttgart U19 manager.
Thanks to the opposition analysis materials Tuchel had put together, there wasn’t a disaster like in the practice match.
Well, that doesn’t mean I was overwhelmingly dominant, either.
It wasn’t a problem in matches against Korean high school punks, since I could still overpower them physically.
German kids were built differently.
Well, just because I got outmuscled didn’t mean we conceded.
Football is a team sport.
If I couldn’t stop them with my own body, I just had to use my teammates.
With my teammates’ help, we successfully shut them down, and by winning and steadily piling up points, we finished first in the youth league.
Normally, the local paper would have run a big feature on our performance, but...
Unfortunately, the timing was a little off.
Because around the same time, Stuttgart had beaten Ferguson’s Manchester United and advanced to the Champions League round of 16 as group runners-up.
For the record, when referring to Man United from this era, you have to put Ferguson’s in front of it. Ferguson’s Man United and the Man United after him were completely different teams.
[Stuttgart U19 Team Retains First Place With Dominant Results.]
Well, there was at least a tiny mention of our performance tucked into a corner of the local paper.
This level of attention is nothing in the professional world, but for youth players, public interest hits differently, and you could feel morale rising in real time.
“Huh? You’re...”
“Haha, yes indeed. I’m Park Chan-hyuk, the one who scored in the last U19 match.”
In fact, when I walked down the street, local residents who recognized me would greet me warmly. Born an attention hog, I happily soaked up people’s attention.
“That rude bastard who gave me the finger back then?”
“Oh. You’re that total asshole from before.”
There had been a minor misunderstanding in the process, though.
Anyway.
I successfully settled into Stuttgart.
***
By the time I had started to settle into Stuttgart to some extent,
I started preparing to earn the recently introduced C-license (DFB C-Lizenz).
Unlike in Korea, in Germany anyone aged 16 or older was eligible to take the exam.
For reference, the DFB C-Lizenz had previously gone by different names and curricula depending on the region, but it had recently been unified into one.
Since it was still a transitional period, there were a few minor hiccups, but I just had to let them slide.
The club didn’t reprimand me much for this behavior.
If anything, they seemed to like how seriously I approached football.
After all, I was putting in the work at training and using my spare time to prepare for a coaching license.
Anyway, once I started studying in earnest to get the license,
“Chan-hyuk, how was your day?”
“Good. You?”
“Me too. Then shall we start talking football now?”
“Sure.”
Thomas Tuchel actively helped me get my license, even tutoring me himself.
“Football is often compared to war, isn’t it? From here on, individual impact in football will be limited, right?”
Well, calling it tutoring is an exaggeration; it was really more like nonstop discussions about tactics.
I talked about the football knowledge I’d seen in the future, and Tuchel added his own thoughts and kept the discussion going.
By the time the daily debates with Thomas Tuchel had let me fully understand his football philosophy,
- Oppa, we’re going to Germany this Saturday.
At last, I got word that my family had finished all the arrangements and was coming to Germany.
And thanks to the club’s consideration, I was able to go meet them.
“Chan-hyuk, I’m really disappointed.”
When he heard I was leaving Stuttgart briefly to see my family, Thomas Tuchel made a face that said, ‘The company commander is disappointed,’ but...
“You football-obsessed bastard, my family came all the way from Korea, of course I have to go meet them.”
I answered by cursing him out.
I’d gotten pretty close to him by then, so I could get away with that much abuse.
Anyway.
I headed to the international airport in Frankfurt.
The reason I came to Frankfurt instead of Berlin was that this was the only direct Korea-Germany route.
We planned to meet in Frankfurt and go to Berlin together.
Since we didn’t even have smartphones, I waited for my family while blankly staring at the ground.
“Hi.”
“Oh. Hi, nice to meet you. Your German’s pretty good. Where are you from?”
“Korea.”
“I see. Should we switch to English then?”
“No, I need to practice my German.”
“Please... just speak English.”
Just as I couldn’t stand the boredom any longer and started talking to the nameless German sitting beside me...
“Oppa!”
My younger sister ran toward me at full speed.
How should I put it.
My first impression of seeing my family again after so long was....
“...Son, the fact that the people of the world don’t know I have a lot of money is truly a great blessing.”
Hm.
Looks like they really had it rough.