Chapter 94
***
The variety-show shoot and tryout had begun in earnest.
In truth, it was only called a tryout in name.
It felt less like a tryout and more like a fan-signing event.
A lot of people had simply come to see the famous football manager with their sons.
'Was 20,000 won too little?'
But I thought it might be a burden for truly poor people, so I couldn't set the fee too high.
'Besides, from the broadcaster's perspective, it was also delicate to charge too much...'
In fact, once we charged an application fee for the tryouts, criticism articles started pouring in.
[Union Berlin, running a racket in Korea under the guise of a tryout?]
└ According to Park Chan-hyuk: We decided to charge even 20,000 won to keep prank applicants out.
└ Well... that makes sense.
└ Agree. If they didn't charge, there would definitely be people who went there just to hang out.
└ Isn't 20,000 won too little? They'd need to charge around 100,000 for it to filter people out.
└ Still, 20,000 won would probably filter out quite a few people.
└ For theater or performances, if they're free they ignore kids making a scene, but if they charge even 10,000 won, they quiet down, they say.
└ If they charge too much, poor and desperate people might genuinely be unable to apply.
There were plenty of comments saying we should charge even more.
But if the fee had really been high, public opinion would definitely have been bad.
And the reason we held the tryout wasn't so much to discover a player who could play for Union Berlin.
It was for the sake of Korean football's development and the broadcaster's request.
Honestly, I didn't think we'd uncover a player good enough for Union Berlin in a place like this.
Unlike back when we were in the lower divisions, Union Berlin was now in the Bundesliga.
Anyway.
There was quite a crowd at the filming site where the tryout was being held.
We had no choice but to move through the event as quickly as possible.
“Do you think our son has talent as a football player?”
And among them were quite a few mothers holding babies.
'...Do they think I'm some kind of fortune teller?'
There seem to be far too many weird people in this world.
'Shouldn't the broadcaster filter stuff like this out properly?'
Seeing the PD grinning from ear to ear, I figured he'd probably marked them as a villain for entertainment value.
“I don't know, since I haven't seen him play.”
Unfortunately, my Scout ability didn't even pick up the potential of children that young.
“You don't even know that? Ugh, what a waste of time. Refund my 20,000 won.”
The mother holding the child clicked her tongue and demanded a refund of the participation fee.
“You'll have to ask the broadcaster for a refund.”
I dumped the hassle on the broadcaster and moved on.
“Chan-hyuk oppa! You're handsome!”
“You look sturdy too.”
Well... not everyone here had come to have their fortune told or attend a fan meeting.
Among them were players who had come for serious career advice.
Based on my experience, knowledge, and the stats shown by Scout, I gave them advice as seriously as I could.
Then, after a while, the evaluation match that would reveal the participants' abilities began.
I put my greed aside and watched the players on the field.
[Name: George Weah.]
Korean name: Jo Ji-won.
Current ability: ★
Potential: ★★★★★★★
“……!!”
Then the 'Black Diamond' turned up.
'...If this were the future, they'd call it racism. But it's still okay for now, right?'
***
Jo Ji-won was a mixed-race child born to a father who had been in the U.S. Forces Korea and a Korean mother.
In fact, South Korea in the 2000s wasn't a good place for mixed-race children to grow up in. People didn't openly discriminate, but they tried to do it in subtle ways.
Jo Ji-won was a victim of that too.
No matter how hard he worked or trained, he still couldn't get onto the pitch.
In fact, Jo Ji-won himself didn't know at first.
“Hey. Ji-won. Under that trash coach, you'll never play, even if you die. So go somewhere else.”
A football-team senior told him to leave the team because he wouldn't be able to get match appearances.
The coach deliberately left him out of the starting lineup just because he was Black.
The young boy gave up on his dream of becoming a football player and decided to focus on studying.
And around that time, he heard about Union Berlin's tryout and decided to participate.
***
Watching Jo Ji-won's selfless play, I nodded.
Compared to the future, where society had become multiethnic, this was still a time when the idea of a single ethnic nation was strong.
I could see the discrimination that guy must have suffered in that situation.
The fact that a player like that never made a name for himself in the future meant one thing.
Despite his overwhelming talent, he must have been treated unfairly.
'Probably the football team's coach put a thumb on the scale, knowingly or not.'
In fact, people in the sports world were generally pretty big on nationalism.
'So they probably think a Korean national team coach can also make it on the world stage.'
Maybe they were jealous after seeing neighboring Japan do well with its own native-born managers.
They were the generation that believed you couldn't lose to Japan, even at rock-paper-scissors.
They lived in an insane era where losing to Japan automatically made you the villain.
Their pride may simply not have been able to accept being outdone by Japan.
'But what did suffering football fans do wrong, just because of their pride?'
Thinking of the future of Korean football, I let out a sigh before I knew it.
'Still, his build is excellent. Maybe because he's mixed-race, his muscle flexibility is excellent too.'
I found myself watching the guy named George Weah closely, forgetting even that we were filming.
His fundamentals are a little lacking, but his physicality alone is absurd.
'And on top of that, his professionalism is excellent...?'
After checking his ability, I asked the youngest PD nearby for more detailed information.
It was because they had blocked participants' personal information for the sake of the tryout's 'fairness.'
I did wonder what that had to do with fairness.
But I was told that if we didn't do this, participants and viewers would complain, so I accepted it quietly.
“How old is that kid?”
“Who? Oh, Ji-won? He’s fourteen now.”
“What... ? How old did you say he was?”
“He’s 14.”
For reference, this was before the Korean age system was abolished.
That meant—
'...That's a first-year middle schooler?'
If I got serious and went one-on-one with him, I'd probably get wrecked.
***
[Union Berlin tryout ends.]
[SBK's new variety program 'Tryout.' scheduled to air in September....]
The troublesome, controversy-filled tryout had come to an end.
[Park Chan-hyuk's chosen boy, Jo Ji-won! Who is he? ]
And one player was selected to head to Union Berlin.
'Come to think of it, he's unusual. He has an American father, and he likes football.'
It was natural for the spotlight to be focused on the tryout, which people had thought was just an event, once a player who would actually sign with Union Berlin emerged.
[Jo Ji-won: “I was about to give up on becoming a football player, but everything feels like a dream.”]
└ What? Can foreigners participate too?
└ Looks like he's mixed-race, though?
└ After all that effort, isn't he just going to choose the U.S. national team?
And I also recommended players to Korean league clubs if they weren't quite good enough for Union Berlin but still had decent ability.
Honestly, I thought my name value in Korea was good enough.
Even if they couldn't sign a pro contract directly with a club, I figured they could at least get a tryout.
[Suwon Giants reject Park Chan-hyuk's player recommendation.]
But most clubs flatly rejected my proposal.
'Wow, what a bunch of strange people.'
Because of the coaches' pushback, I had no choice but to write recommendation letters mainly for J.League clubs or community clubs in the second division.
[Kang Dae-han passes a Japanese J.League trial. “Thanks to Manager Park Chan-hyuk for writing the recommendation letter.”]
And among them was the club Tigers, which I had ties to in my previous life.
[Joo Min-guk joins the second-division Tigers!]
It was a little shitty having a club owner who was also the mayor and still expected results without paying a cent, but looking back, life there wasn't as bad as I'd thought.
During the second-division title win, that clueless bastard of an owner tried to lift the trophy, so I kicked him. Still, later on, he was the one who thanked me for helping keep football fans from drifting away.
'Might as well make a good connection while I have the chance.'
It might be nice to make it a place where Korean prospects get hardened before they come to Germany.
Anyway.
All that was left now were the matches, and I thought we could finish the schedule in Korea without any trouble, just like in Japan.
[Conversation among Korean pro football managers revealed.... “Park Chan-hyuk is all hype. If I were a Bundesliga manager, I could do better than him too?”]
Until the Korean league managers opened their mouths to talk trash about me.
***
[Park Chan-hyuk to Korean league managers who claim their own tactics would work in Germany... “Then stop running your mouths and come to Germany to prove it.”]
[Park Chan-hyuk to coaches who say they'd go if a Bundesliga offer came: “Expecting to be handed a Bundesliga job when you've shown nothing is a thief's mentality.”]
[Park Chan-hyuk in rude remarks controversy! “A Korean league coaching career can't even be used on your resume when applying for a European coaching job.”]
[Park Chan-hyuk compares the J.League and Korean league levels.... “Arsène Wenger, who came from the J.League, went on to manage the prestigious club Arsenal. But does the Korean league have a coach like that?”]
***
Until the Korean pro league managers provoked me, I was planning to take the matches at a normal pace.
[Veterans of Korean pro football criticize Park Chan-hyuk.... “You should respect your seniors and be humble.”]
└ Now that he’s gone from the second division to the first, he’s acting like he’s some Bundesliga manager, lol.
└ Once the season starts, Union Berlin’s results will tank and Park Chan-hyuk will probably get sacked.
But it seemed I’d have to show the Korean league coaches and football fans the difference in level.
Just before the match against the Oseong Red Wings, last season's league leaders, I pulled out my trump card.
“Goals, assists, win bonuses, clean-sheet bonuses—quadrupled across the board.”
It was the so-called 'Burning Event.'