Chapter 83
***
“……It's still chilly out. Aren't you cold?”
I quietly ignored Marcus Matjke's words.
It's embarrassing to say, but honestly I felt like I was freezing to death. Berlin's weather is basically the same as Seoul's. Summers are just a little less hot, and winters a little less cold.
‘……Is this heaven?’
Anyway.
March wasn't the kind of weather for wearing vacation clothes.
Even as my hands and feet shook uncontrollably, I started giving the players tactical instructions without showing it.
Poker face was one of the many qualities a great manager needed. It was only natural that I had it.
“St, Sta. Pa, Pauli is defi-finitely….”
“……You look really cold.”
Daniel Teixeira quietly took care of me.
Ah.
Was it that obvious?
Apparently, even poker face doesn't work against the cold.
***
St. Pauli's manager hated Union Berlin. To him, Union Berlin was a horrible team.
It wasn't just that Park Chan-hyeok liked to provoke people right before a match; just facing Union Berlin always made him feel like he was going to be tripped up by something unexpected.
[‘A tactical genius or a weirdo.’ Manager Park Chan-hyeok, who took an aggressive approach against Bayern Munich and suffered a crushing defeat.]
St. Pauli's manager read the criticism article about Park Chan-hyeok and let out a sigh.
There was something people misunderstood about the Union Berlin manager.
They assumed his strongest skill was strategic or tactical ability.
But according to himself and the other managers, the Union Berlin manager's greatest strength was his ability to motivate players by getting along with them like friends or brothers.
In other words, it was a weapon unique to the young manager Park Chan-hyeok, something older managers like himself couldn't do.
But neither St. Pauli's manager nor anyone else said that to the press.
If they did, reporters would just write articles saying incompetent old managers were jealous of young managers.
Well, that wasn't entirely wrong either.
When you saw someone recognized for their talent and attention from such a young age, it was impossible not to feel jealous.
‘By the way, it's surprising that he still earns his players' respect even while acting like that.’
St. Pauli's manager also found Union Berlin itself a little strange.
To lead players with strong egos, a manager had no choice but to be authoritative.
But Park Chan-hyeok shocked football by showing a non-authoritarian style as a manager.
For Park Chan-hyeok, it was only natural.
His players had longer careers than he did, and most of them were older than he was. If anything, taking a non-authoritarian approach was probably the natural course.
But to traditional football managers, Park Chan-hyeok's non-authoritarian behavior was incomprehensible.
Recently in the lower leagues, Park Chan-hyeok's name had spread, and more and more managers began keeping overly familiar relationships with their players, calling it 'Park Chan-hyeok leadership.'
And about this trend, veteran managers gave warnings and advice to young managers trying to learn from Park Chan-hyeok.
They said that being too non-authoritarian would interfere with controlling the squad.
In fact, in the lower leagues, there were even cases where players copied Park Chan-hyeok, ignored the manager's orders, and acted as if they were equals.
But even so, young managers still insisted they were different and kept following Park Chan-hyeok's leadership.
‘Well. Can't be helped. This is a privilege of the young.’
St. Pauli's manager let out a sigh.
It was only natural for young people to think they were special.
‘But why is Union Berlin fine?’
What St. Pauli's manager couldn't understand was Union Berlin.
Such behavior could have caused problems with the manager's authority, but strangely, Union Berlin didn't really have any problems.
‘Does it make sense for a rookie manager who's about to turn 21 to be a man-manager?’
It was an incomprehensible, bizarre thing.
And on match day.
St. Pauli's manager greeted Union Berlin's manager.
St. Pauli's manager's eyes were drawn to the shorts Park Chan-hyeok was wearing.
And the Hawaiian shirt peeking out from under his jumper was strangely distracting.
‘...What is with that outfit?’
Was that also supposed to be a non-authoritarian move...?
There had been talk before about him sitting on the bench in sweatpants, though.
Even so, wearing shorts in March was beyond imagination.
“What the hell? Why is Union Berlin's manager dressed like that?”
“What kind of stunt is that? Is that some kind of provocation, like saying you can treat you lot as if you're on vacation?”
St. Pauli started getting rattled by Union Berlin before kickoff.
***
Union Berlin, in its match against St. Pauli.
It succeeded in scoring early.
From Marcus Matjke's pass, Roberto Lewandowski suddenly fired a long-range shot and scored.
As Lewandowski ran to the corner flag and celebrated.
“What the fuck. Yanik, what is up with your manager? Why is he dressed like that?”
St. Pauli's captain and Union Berlin's captain exchanged words. After playing each other many times, they had naturally become friendly.
“......We don't know either. He just showed up dressed like that today.”
Yanik Voigt had nothing to say to St. Pauli's captain. He genuinely didn't know anything, so he couldn't answer.
‘Well. Judging by what he said before kickoff, I can kind of guess….’
But it was too embarrassing to tell him the truth—that the manager had come out dressed like that just to ease the players' burden.
‘What kind of crazy manager in this world shows up dressed like that just to loosen up the squad?’
Still, Park Chan-hyeok's odd behavior seemed pretty effective.
In fact, the burden Union Berlin's players had been carrying, knowingly or not, vanished in an instant.
The phrase 'the club's first-ever promotion to the first division' was enough to put pressure on the players.
Union Berlin's players were floundering in the swamp of pressure without even realizing it.
I hadn't realized it then, but looking back now, Yanik Voigt had probably been more tense than usual too.
With the referee's whistle, the match resumed with St. Pauli's kickoff, and Yanik Voigt looked at St. Pauli's players.
‘Those St. Pauli guys look pretty rattled.’
It not only eased the pressure on Union Berlin's players, but also threw the opposition off.
If you ignored how embarrassing the manager's outfit was, it was a pretty decent strategy….
“Huh?”
The moment Yanik Voigt was lost in thought, the ball came his way.
Yanik Voigt calmly struck the ball that came his way.
It rippled St. Pauli's net.
“Hoooooo─!”
Yanik Voigt stared blankly at Park Chan-hyeok, who was celebrating by the corner flag.
Park Chan-hyeok's outfit was clearly an excellent strategy, in Yanik Voigt's opinion.
***
[Gooooal! It's in! Yanik Voigt makes it 2-0! Union Berlin is overwhelming St. Pauli!]
[Union Berlin scores twice in the first half alone!]
[Park Chan-hyeok has been drawing attention with his unusual outfit. Perhaps that too is part of a strategy….]
└ Shit, that's too much praise.
└ But why the hell is his outfit like that?
└ Isn't that a provocation?
***
[Union Berlin crushes St. Pauli 4-0.]
Having scored twice in the first half and controlled the match, Union Berlin claimed a satisfying blowout victory over St. Pauli.
The gloomy locker-room atmosphere caused by the losing streak disappeared completely.
I nodded with satisfaction at the players' expressions, now freed from the pressure of promotion.
It might sound a little strange to say, but St. Pauli was like The Giving Tree for us.
Because it always helped us shift the team's mood at crucial moments.
[Union Berlin, Manager Park Chan-hyeok. Provocation after the match? "St. Pauli is like a nutritional supplement."]
I expressed my gratitude to St. Pauli in the interview, putting those feelings into words. Even with the media's obvious attempt to stir up trouble, I believed my sincerity would reach the St. Pauli fans.
[St. Pauli fans furious! Demand an apology from Union Berlin's Manager Park Chan-hyeok.]
But unfortunately, St. Pauli seemed to have taken it as a taunt.
What a regrettable world it is when even a sincere expression of gratitude doesn't get through.
[Manager Park Chan-hyeok apologizes to St. Pauli fans...? “Sorry. I didn't mean it that way. What I meant was that a match against a great team like St. Pauli is like taking a nutritional supplement.”]
[St. Pauli manager, looking exhausted.... “I just wish Union Berlin's manager would keep his mouth shut.”]
[Park Chan-hyeok, “The media is driving a wedge between us.”]
└ ??? What the hell is Park Chan-hyeok even saying? He started the provocation first, lol.
└ I checked the original interview, and they just wrote down exactly what he said, lol.
Well. Anyway.
Union Berlin's next opponent, after ending their losing streak and successfully restoring the team's mood, was.
[Mainz manager Jürgen Klopp, “The season isn't over yet. We will definitely achieve promotion to the first division this season.”]
It was Jürgen Klopp's Mainz, currently sitting in 4th place in the league.