Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Preseason -1
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***
Union Berlin was scheduled to play a total of four preseason matches, including a friendly against Bayern Munich.
The first preseason opponent for Union Berlin was FC Victoria 1889 Berlin, a team from the fourth division.
In fact, preseason matches were often played against lower-league teams.
Preseason is mostly spent assessing the abilities of newly appointed managers or incoming players, refining tactics, and providing opportunities to evaluate promising youth players.
Union Berlin had also decided to bring up a few prospects from the youth team for testing.
As a result, Manuel Schmitt and Son Hong-min were promoted to the first team from Union Berlin's youth squad.
'Schmitt's stats are now on par with the current starting goalkeeper.'
In Manuel Schmitt's case, as long as he gained some appropriate experience, it wouldn't be strange at all if he displaced the current starter and took over the position.
[Name: Manuel Schmitt]
Current Ability: ★★★
Potential: ★★★★★
I decided to entrust the backup goalkeeper spot to Manuel Schmitt for this season. Since we had qualified for the Pokal thanks to winning the third division last season, we needed to implement some rotation.
Up until now, Union Berlin had been able to focus solely on the league, but starting this season, we had to put in a decent showing in the DFB-Pokal as well.
Unlike my snap decision to promote Manuel Schmitt, Son Hong-min was a player I agonized over until the very end.
As a Korean manager, promoting a Korean youth player to the first team felt a bit conspicuous. Even without anyone saying anything, it made me overly cautious.
'Promote him or not...'
I wrestled with the decision to bring Son Hong-min up to the first team right up to the deadline.
[Name: Son Hong-min]
Current Ability: ★★★
Potential: ★★★★★★
But Son Hong-min's skills had risen so quickly that I couldn't just leave him in the youth team anymore.
Fortunately, the Union Berlin U18 coach had recommended promoting him to the first team as soon as possible, which allowed me to do so without much burden.
Like Manuel Schmitt, I didn't expect Son Hong-min to fully showcase his abilities yet due to his lack of experience.
I planned to slowly prepare both Son Hong-min and Manuel to adapt to the first team through this preseason.
[(Breaking News) Son Hong-min Joins Union Berlin First Team for Preseason.]
└ For real
└ Isn't he only 16?
└ Wow, youngest ever. For real.
└ Why promote him all of a sudden?
└ Probably because NON-EU rules are being scrapped this year.
A few days later, news of Son Hong-min's first-team preseason inclusion reached South Korea.
[Exclusive Interview with Son Hong-min: "I will do my absolute best to become a player who can represent Korea."]
└ With a Korean manager, Son Hong-min starting in the first division is totally possible lol
└ Get real lol. Just because the manager's Korean doesn't mean first-division starting spot is guaranteed.
└ Koreans always bash school ties, regional ties, blood ties, but love them more than anyone lol
└ Fr lol. We condemn them in words, but when a good opportunity comes, it's "he's one of ours."
A ton of articles poured out.
In a way, it was only natural.
After all, South Korea's youngest-ever overseas professional had just been born.
For reference, Son Hong-min and Union Berlin had officially signed a pro contract. FIFA youth regulations made it tricky, but fortunately, his parents moving to Germany resolved the legal issues.
It was still possible because FIFA's Transfer and Registration Regulations hadn't taken effect yet. Once those rules came in, youth contracts would become much stricter.
Union Berlin and Son Hong-min's contract was for five years. After the regulations were introduced in 2009, youth contracts had to be three years or less, but at this point in time, a five-year deal was fine.
"Wow, they pay this much weekly?"
As a rookie on a youth contract rather than a full pro one, he wasn't getting a huge salary.
But even that amount made Son Hong-min's eyes go wide with joy. He thanked me and club president Dirk Zingler multiple times.
"Yeah, don't forget that feeling now, and make sure you bring in a big transfer fee when you move on later."
"Bro! I mean, Manager, why talk like I'm leaving somewhere? That hurts my feelings for real."
Instead of answering, I just laughed it off.
As much as I hated to say it, Union Berlin was too small and poor a club to hold onto players. Yannick Foight staying despite first-division offers was the weird part.
Anyway.
Son Hong-min became the first Korean student abroad to receive a contract offer from Union Berlin.
His promotion to the first team for preseason and signing of the youth contract became another stimulus for the Korean students abroad.
With Son Hong-min pulling ahead in so many ways, the other Korean students started burning with determination to catch up to him.
"Chan-hyuk, we've got an offer from the Asian Football Confederation."
"Specifically where? Korea?"
"Japan and China. And we've heard from the soccer federations in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia too."
And Son Hong-min's first-team news led to another opportunity for Union Berlin. Asian soccer federations had flooded us with contact after hearing he would debut with the first team.
Fans in those countries dismissed it as a national manager hyping a national player.
But their federations couldn't afford to do the same.
Having heard that Korean students at Union Berlin were showing remarkable progress, the federations from each country were eager to negotiate.
There were countless soccer federations in Asia.
And among them, the Japan Football Association was particularly proactive.
'...Japan's FA really knows how to get things done.'
Probably because of the cultural similarities between Japan and Korea, they figured their prospects would adapt well in Germany.
The Japan FA agreed to help Union Berlin sign cheap players from the J-League. Japanese clubs also decided to sell at reasonable transfer fees for the greater good.
For the record, this wasn't about Japan being generous while criticizing Korea. The soccer environments in Korea and Japan were vastly different from the start.
In Japan, if a club opposed a transfer due to a low fee, the club's or player's sponsors would step in to cover it.
Plus, most of a Japanese player's salary could be covered by sponsors from Japanese companies.
'Damn... the scale of investment in soccer is on another level.'
I couldn't help but be impressed by the terms the Japan FA proposed. Coming to Europe, I'd realized Japan's sports investment was on a whole different scale from Korea's.
'But the best players in Asia still come from Korea, right?'
Despite the smaller investment, the fact that world-class players emerged from Korea filled me with a strange sense of pride.
Anyway.
I promised to visit Japan personally next season and to send a scout this season.
What mattered to me right now was getting through the preseason schedule smoothly.
'I guess I should put together the lineup like it's a test combo.'
I was in the process of finalizing the starting lineup ahead of the match against the fourth-division team.
At that very moment, as I finished the lineup.
[FC Victoria 1889 Berlin Coach Christian Krauss Provokes Union Berlin's Park Chan-hyuk: "He's a Korean bubble."]
A new newspaper article about me came in.
...Why the hell is some random coach running his mouth?
That day, I witnessed my original sin.
***
Germany's lower leagues were currently in an era of utter madness.
All because Park Chan-hyuk, the legendary figure who started as a fourth-division assistant coach at 18 and became a second-division manager at 20, had appeared.
Park Chan-hyuk's rapid success at a young age became a role model for the youngest coaches in the lower leagues.
And it didn't take long for the lower leagues to descend into chaos.
It began when one coach snubbed his manager and tried to emulate Park Chan-hyuk.
Some even crossed the line and got fired from their coaching jobs. Truly, all sorts of lunatics started flooding in.
[Veteran Managers Voice Discontent... 'Young coaches these days have no manners.']
Veteran managers who had built up respectable careers in the lower leagues called the 20-something coaches, who had abandoned sportsmanship and respect, the 'worst generation.'
And FC Victoria 1889 Berlin's youngest coach, Christian Krauss, was no different.
Christian Krauss believed that if given the same opportunities as Park Chan-hyuk, he could prove his abilities just as well.
'An Asian can do it, so what's stopping me?'
He even thought he could outperform Park Chan-hyuk.
Infuriated by Krauss's interview, his manager told him to do whatever the hell he wanted and handed him temporary command for the match. Of course, Krauss would take full responsibility for any loss.
Looking at Union Berlin's squad, Christian Krauss was confident of victory.
Union Berlin's starting players were largely absent, replaced by new signings, bench players, and youth prospects. Even their goalkeeper was a recent youth call-up.
'Just as planned.'
Park Chan-hyuk had sent out mostly youth and new signings in response to his provocation.
'He's scared of me.'
Krauss figured Park Chan-hyuk had done it as an excuse for player testing after an inevitable loss.
But once the match actually started.
The game flowed entirely in Union Berlin's favor.
Because FC Victoria 1889 Berlin's players couldn't properly understand their coach Krauss's instructions.
Unfortunately, reality wasn't a game where players executed orders perfectly.
The players just played the way they always had.
The moment they moved to follow the bellowing coach's orders from the touchline, their defensive line tangled and collapsed.
"Whooooooo─!"
And that day.
"Whooooooo─!"
Christian Krauss had to dazedly watch as Park Chan-hyuk performed his bizarre ceremony right in front of him.
"Whooooooo─!"
"Please stop, you bastard!"