The God of Soccer's Heartache
The season rolled on, and it was now the 28th round. Liverpool had traveled to face Manchester City.
Liverpool lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, throwing a heavy attack at us, trying to overwhelm Manchester City with numbers.
**CHOOOOOOAANG!**
Castillo's sharp tackle sliced through the air and kicked the ball cleanly away from Alisson, sending it safely outside the danger zone.
As the game progressed, the need for me to step in lessened. The defense line started sweeping the ball away more and more often.
And once cleared, the ball never fell to the ground in front of our iron-wall midfield trio of Mathias, Oden, and Sanchez.
Now, even without me, Manchester City was a strong team that could still be called a powerhouse.
Sanchez received a pass from Oden and immediately unleashed a ground shot. The ball sliced through the grass, threading a razor-sharp pass to Guerrero.
Liverpool defenders surged forward to challenge Guerrero!
Back when Guerrero first arrived at City, he would have charged ahead with nothing but pure physicality. But today he was no longer that reckless kid.
Guerrero remained calm even as the defenders came charging. He pulled the ball back, slipped it through the opponent's legs with a cheeky little touch.
"Damn it!"
A nutmeg that made even the Rainbow Flick look like a child's tantrum. It smashed the defender's pride into dust.
The defender spun around and grabbed Guerrero's jersey, but he was already too fast. His legs simply couldn't hold him back.
Guerrero, despite being grabbed, kept running straight ahead!
It was as if he were a raging bull! Whenever that player runs, no one can stop him!
**PUNG!**
**GOOOAL! GOAL! GOAL! GOAL!!!** Manchester City’s first goal! With this strike, Guerrero reached 25 goals and took the lead!
He had finally overtaken the 24 goals of Garzo of Manchester United.
Liverpool had been praised for a perfect team rebuild this season, showing clear improvement from last year. Against Manchester City, however, they were barely using their best weapons.
And now, with City already in front, my clean sheet had become an unwritten rule.
I had gone the entire season without conceding a single goal whenever we scored first.
**A! Alisson launched an incredibly powerful long-range shot in an instant, but it couldn't break my record! No, from his perspective, the ball had appeared out of nowhere! How did he save it!**
Even a Fussballer-level long-range strike that would have won the Puskás Award this season couldn't shatter my record.
The longer the game continued, the more morale drained from Liverpool.
**Look at the cameras now, sweeping across the Liverpool bench. Everyone has their heads bowed.**
I had long since crossed the line of being called just the “Iron Wall” and earned the nickname “A Striker’s Nightmare.” In the Premier League, the phrase “If you want to be top scorer, go join Tae-woo’s team” had become a running joke.
With only the goalkeeper position, the Ballon d’Or would be impossible, but the Yashin Trophy… there was still a chance, wasn’t there?
*Then the God of Soccer might finally give me a gift after such a long time?*
Since the day he revealed that this wasn’t just a simple transmigration but a shocking truth, he had completely cut off all contact.
In the past, whenever I carried a letter, he would always reply. Now there was only silence.
*Well, there must be some reason. Maybe he gambled everything away in points again.*
I let out a small laugh.
If he were truly omnipotent, what reason could he possibly have…
*But even so, maybe it’s because of the God of Soccer after all.*
* * *
In the dark space, there was only one small window. Beneath the beams of light filtering through white clouds, a boy no taller than 130 centimeters hovered in mid-air.
His gaze was fixed solely on that window.
“God of Soccer, Lior! Come out!”
“Ugh, I didn’t do anything wrong!”
In the dark room, a man stood before the iron bars and heard the boy’s words. His expression twisted with anger as he shouted.
“You’ve changed a single human’s destiny with your thoughtless action. Even as a god, you can’t be forgiven for that! A human’s fate is something gods must never interfere with… You’ve already done something similar once, haven’t you?”
The small boy, surprisingly, flared up and shouted back.
“So what am I supposed to do?! I fell in love with his football!”
The God of Judgment, Arbiter, standing before the bars, couldn’t hide his heartache.
“It’s pitiful. You’ve thrown everything into a mere human… Your fate will be decided soon. Follow me, Lior.”
As they left the darkness, clouds lay beneath their feet. Walking on them, the divine judgment hall revealed its imposing form.
A colossal building supported by golden pillars looked like the law courts of the human world raised a thousand times over.
Light streamed through the clouds and poured between the pillars, radiating sacred awe.
And the moment Lior stepped into that place,
a deep, resonant voice echoed through the space like thunder.
“Sinful Lior… appear before the judgment seat.”
With those single words, the entire celestial courtroom trembled.
Standing before the blades of judgment scattered all around him, a majestic figure appeared at the very center of the highest point. An elderly man with long flowing white hair.
“Do you know your sin?”
“Hmph, what sin is this? I only told him the truth.”
“You know better than anyone that that ‘truth’ is my final mercy toward him and you, don’t you?”
Lior looked at the elderly man with serious eyes.
“Grandfather… Can you really just watch your beloved one grieve?”
“Foolish boy, so foolish…”
“What is foolish? I’m completely satisfied.”
The elderly man’s gaze at Lior was no longer that of a sinner, but of profound pity for a lost grandson.
“I endured it when you first gave that talent no human should possess and sent him to be reborn.”
“What? You took something else away instead!”
“Ugh… I also turned my eyes away when you sent him back to his original world and twisted time.”
“By dangling impossible conditions in front of him, making his life hell instead.”
**BOOM!**
A thunderous noise shook the heavens as the elderly man — no, Lior’s grandfather and the King of Hell — glared at him with fury.
“If you weren’t my grandson, you would have been erased the moment you committed that first sin!”
His rage filled with words shook the entire courtroom.
“Erase? Hah! Then erase me! But grandfather, you know how special he is.”
“How dare you…!”
“He carved his own fate with his own hands! His destiny was nothing more than an ordinary player in his home country! But he… he said he surpassed his limits through effort!”
“Exactly. He should have stopped there. Even if the fate he built ended poorly, a god must not interfere. That is fate. That is the law.”
“No!”
Lior’s voice trembled.
“He lost everything that was most precious to a human while carving his own fate — family, love… everything. That’s why I gave him a gift. But grandfather ruined even that for him!”
Anger and sorrow burned in Lior’s eyes.
“Tae-woo… he deserves to be happy! If a human can move the God of Soccer with pure passion, isn’t he entitled to that much reward?”
“His fate is—”
“No, grandfather! Don’t talk about fate. Look at his play. How beautiful it was! Even in the first life where he was born without talent, his football was so dazzling it stole the breath away!”
“He didn’t lack talent.”
The King of Hell continued coldly.
“He had enough talent to live as a professional footballer.”
A bitter smile appeared on Lior’s lips.
“Yes. That was all. But he… he completely surpassed that kind of talent.”
“So you’re insisting your wrongdoing was none?”
“Yes.”
Lior answered boldly.
“I did nothing wrong. Rather, I think the grandfather who stopped my gift is the one who’s wrong. Because of you, he never enjoyed true happiness.”
The King of Hell’s gaze grew cold.
“There is nothing more to say to you. Arbiter, take him. The judgment will be postponed.”
“Yes!”
As Lior was dragged away, he still stood tall to the end.
Looking straight at his grandfather, he shouted.
“No matter how much of a god you are, you have no right to belittle a person’s effort or destroy their happiness. Never!”
“Enough with the acting.”
Arbiter grabbed Lior’s arm and chided him.
“Acting? I’m talking about my grandfather.”
“It’s your grandfather!”
The King of Hell watched Lior’s shameless expression and felt an indescribable mix of emotions.
He was the one who measured and punished the sins of the gods.
The weight of being a fair judge pressed heavily on his shoulders.
*Even if he’s my grandson…*
If he simply let this go, the words that would spread throughout the divine realm would be as clear as fire.
The guardian of law and order could never escape the criticism of showing favoritism only to his own grandson.
The King of Hell was left alone in the empty courtroom and let out a heavy sigh.
*How… what am I supposed to do?*
In his voice, there was no longer the dignity of a great god, but the tender agony of a grandfather.