Sapporo Disaster
Sapporo Disaster.
Once the Dortmund vs. Hamburg match wrapped up, a flood of articles came pouring out.
The opening game for the defending champions, Dortmund, drew massive attention not just in Germany, but in Korea and Japan too.
And in Korea especially, the article that grabbed the most headlines was this one.
This article wasn't exactly true. Well, to be precise, it was technically accurate but slyly twisted.
The "German media" they were talking about was just a local Dortmund paper.
Obviously, a hometown rag was gonna hype me up after I put on a show for Dortmund.
It was like those Korean outlets that only cover Korean players killing it overseas.
Korean reporters had spun this local Dortmund piece like it came straight from Bild or Kicker Rangliste—the German soccer mag's player rankings for Bundesliga stars and foreign players with German nationality.
And the real sleazy part? Dropping "WK" to make it look like an official Kicker Rangliste grade. Classic journalist bullshit.
"...This is straight-up Recka territory, huh?"
Nah, more like National Pride TV. I mulled it over seriously for a second, then shrugged it off as a minor hiccup.
I hadn't done anything wrong—it was the reporters twisting shit. Why should that be on me?
When I head back to Korea later, they can issue a correction... or I could just ball out in the first half of the season and actually snag a WK rating.
Honestly, though, I wasn't counting on WK being easy to grab.
The current Kicker Rangliste breaks players down by position into four tiers: Weltklasse (WK), Internationale Klasse (IK), Im Weiteren Kreis (solid contender, K), and Blickfeld (one to watch, B).
Landing WK? That's like snatching stars from the sky. You had to have a legendary season.
Even guys like Michael Ballack, Mesut Özil, Stefan Effenberg, and Miroslav Klose only got it once each.
"Makes you appreciate Coach Cha Bum-geun even more—back when racism was rampant, and he still nabbed a WK once."
For reference, among Koreans, only Cha Bum-geun ever hit IK or higher.
If I pulled off even an IK, Korea would lose its mind.
Sure, Kagawa Shinji grabs a WK in the second half of this season...
But that's 'cause Kagawa's form goes god-mode. Dude ends up joining Manchester United off that insane run.
Ferguson's United, not Moyes' dumpster fire. Night and day between those two.
Point is, Kagawa's season was that broken.
Deep down, I'd love to WK my way into United too and chase the Big Ear there... but sadly, even with a WK at 16, FIFA's youth transfer ban kills it.
I'm only playing for Dortmund now as a student visa stud—no pro contract yet.
That's why they're babying me. Can't have me bolt to some other club on the cheap.
Not that I'd go for peanuts, but I sure as hell wasn't telling Dortmund that.
The more they obsess over me, the better.
Anyway...
"Jino! See you next week!"
"Yeah! Crush it for your national team!"
As the international break hit, Dortmund's national team guys cleared out for duty.
Thanks to Coach Klopp's hard sell—long flights at my age could mess up my season—I skipped the national team call-up.
Sweet, sweet mid-season vacation time.
This unexpected break let me hang with Gyeowol for some real quality time.
"You said you've got something you wanna do lately?"
Gyeowol nodded at my question.
"Yeah. I wanna be a coach."
"A coach?"
She nodded shyly at my puzzled look.
I instantly pictured her yelling on the pitch—Hey! Son Jinho!—and a grin crept onto my face.
"...Doesn't suit me?"
Mistaking my smile for mockery, she asked glumly.
"Nah, it suits you perfectly."
I shook my head fast. Tiny misunderstandings like this could snowball—better squash 'em quick.
"For real?"
Her lips twitched into a smile as she snuggled in.
Feeling her warmth, I drifted into thought.
Pre-regression, she'd never spilled her real dream.
Just "go to college like everyone else, study"—that was it.
Coming to Germany seemed to brighten her up, though. More playful, more affectionate.
"If you wanna coach soccer, how about chatting with Jürgen later?"
"...Really?"
Her face lit up at the offer. Whoa, she loves that idea. Guess I wasn't just talking out my ass.
Time to invite Klopp for dinner soon.
Beats leaving Mother-in-law to eat alone—plus, wining and dining Klopp's family with Korean food shows some class.
"Yeah. But first, we gotta get Mother-in-law's okay..."
"I'll go ask!"
No time to stop her—she bolted out the door.
"Mom—!!"
"Gyeowol... Ever since you suddenly wanted to study abroad last time, hearing you call me all cheery just makes me uneasy for no reason."
Some things never change from Korea. A smile tugged at my lips watching the scene.
While we chatted about Gyeowol's future...
All eyes in Korea zeroed in on the Korea-Japan friendly.
Noise had been brewing even before kickoff.
Overseas clubs pushed back on call-ups for their players.
But Coach Park ignored the club coaches' pleas and called them up anyway.
What I couldn't wrap my head around was the overseas guys like Sung-yueng hyung putting up with it.
These dudes trash the coach on private SNS or roast his tactics in interviews all the time. So why no pushback on playing through injuries?
Patriotism? Maybe...
If it were me, I'd have flipped the table and quit the national team ages ago.
Maybe I'm just low on national pride... Probably scars from my past life.
After losing Gyeowol to that traffic accident—sudden unintended acceleration from a car defect—the shit that followed turned my stomach.
Best part of Germany? Hardly any of those company cars on the road.
August 10, 2011. The day arrived.
Mother-in-law and Gyeowol wanted to watch the Korea-Japan game over lunch with Klopp, but I desperately talked them out of it.
Klopp cheering Kagawa's goal? Disaster waiting to happen! I couldn't survive that icy awkwardness. Just watching while eating without choking would be a win.
And so the friendly kicked off.
"Ugh... I'm not watching this."
Mother-in-law got up and headed to her room after Kagawa's opener.
"Argh! Is this even soccer?!"
Gyeowol rage-typed on her smartphone after Honda's second.
Then Kagawa bagged his second—Japan's third.
Crack—!
Something shattered in Mother-in-law's room.
Tap tap—.
Gyeowol hammered away silently.
Korea couldn't claw back a single goal, losing 3-0 to Japan in the Sapporo Disaster.
Calls to sack Park Kwang-rae started bubbling under the surface.
And then he put the nail in his own coffin. When reporters hammered him for not calling me up...
Announcing he'd bring in Lee Chung-yong—who was out half a season with injury.
Bolton, Lee Chung-yong's club, blew up predictably.
Other clubs griping about call-ups despite injuries like gastroenteritis piled on too.
But the killer blow? Mentioning me.
The dongsaengs unleashed years of pent-up karma on Park online the second he said he'd call me up.
Public opinion tanked. KFA Chairman Cho Yeon-jong—eyeing re-election—axed Park in a shady, by-the-book move.
Pre-Lebanon Shock, this sacking hit even harder than in my past life.
And slipping in amid the KFA chaos...
"Jino, nice to meet you."
The German Football Association (DFB) made their quiet approach.