The Saint of La Masia
***
When I heard that the next filming location for Fly World Class 11 was FC Barcelona, I wasn't particularly surprised.
And for good reason — the global OTT platform backing Fly World Class 11 had Barcelona as one of its sub-sponsors.
La Masia, huh.
La Masia de Can Planes, the academy that produced Lionel Messi, was famous the world over.
It was the place where the football philosophy of the legendary Dutch player Johan Cruyff lived on.
In fact, during my early regressions, what I learned at La Masia had been a great help to me.
Well. That's neither here nor there. Do I want to join again? No.
Honestly, Barcelona was not a club I favored.
When my entire mission was to surpass Messi, playing for FC Barcelona didn't help me one bit.
To Barcelona fans, Messi was a saint of the football world, and they wouldn't even tolerate the heirs La Masia itself produced surpassing Lionel Messi, the greatest player in the club's history.
Well. I could somewhat understand how Barça fans felt.
Until Lionel Messi's arrival, FC Barcelona had always been a club a step behind Real Madrid.
Not only in trophy counts — even the head-to-head record in El Clásico overwhelmingly favored Real Madrid.
But after Messi appeared, Barcelona didn't just catch up in their head-to-head record; they turned it around.
It wasn't for nothing that people called Messi the player greater than his own team.
Messi was the man who made the Barcelona of today possible.
And right up until the ending where they kicked him out — perfect.
The fans carried a certain sense of guilt about Lionel Messi.
Because of the club's circumstances, he'd been shoved out the door without even a proper farewell, practically expelled.
So that's why the fans worship Messi like a saint?
In any case, for all these reasons, the club I favored most in La Liga was Real Madrid.
They'd once had Ronaldo, Messi's rival, too — but it never felt religious the way Messi did for Barcelona.
And this is purely my personal opinion, but Real Madrid is a wonderful club that will go so far as to stage a no-show on a player's behalf.
Back in the day, after the Ballon d'Or no-show incident, football fans around the world cursed Real Madrid for being petty — but unfortunately for them, for a player of color like me, that kind of club was an absolute godsend.
In fact, I'd had the Ballon d'Or stolen from me more than once by the subtle discriminatory undercurrents running through the football world.
Anyway.
I went through my usual personal training as always.
...The scenery really is beautiful, though.
As training wound down, I stared blankly for a while at the sun sinking below the horizon of the sea.
Mother loved the Barcelona scenery.
Then, out of nowhere, I thought of my mother back in Korea.
To show her the view, I called her.
"...Son, is something wrong?"
And the one who greeted me was my mother, half her voice still thick with sleep — apparently I'd woken her up in a pitch-dark room.
...Ah. Right. It's the middle of the night in Korea.
***
A few days after we'd settled in Barcelona, the joint training between Fly World Class 11 and Barcelona's Alevín squad began.
Hwang Hyun-woo kept the crew to a bare minimum so as not to disturb the training.
Must be because they're Barcelona youth players. The level is high.
Aside from Joo Jae-rim, the cast of Fly World Class 11 looked like they were struggling just to keep up with the drills.
Watching the coaches speak to Joo Jae-rim with serious expressions, PD Hwang Hyun-woo felt a smile creep across his face.
So Jae-rim's talent is something Barcelona genuinely wants.
This was no mere delusion on Hwang Hyun-woo's part.
In reality, Barcelona's current interest in Joo Jae-rim was beyond anything he could imagine.
And it wasn't just Barcelona — the big clubs of other leagues were taking notice of Joo Jae-rim as well.
The reason was a social media post by Cristiano Ronaldo.
To Joo Jae-rim, Cristiano Ronaldo was nothing more than a talkative middle-aged man, but within the football world, Ronaldo's influence remained enormous.
Ronaldo's post about Joo Jae-rim spread across the globe at lightning speed.
Just as interest in the "genius boy" Ronaldo had mentioned was building, Fly World Class 11 aired worldwide through the global OTT platform, and it didn't take long for the name Joo Jae-rim to reach European football fans.
Thanks to Ronaldo whipping the public's expectations into a frenzy, the world's reaction to the genius football boy was hotter than anyone had anticipated.
***
Needless to say, Barcelona's training wasn't particularly difficult.
For someone of my caliber, it was stuff I could do half-asleep.
Well. I've already been through all of it at least once.
Maybe that's why even the Spanish coaches singing my praises no longer moved me at all.
"Wasn't this your first time doing a drill like this? You pick it up remarkably well. Marco, how old did we say that boy was?"
"Eight."
"You're joking."
"I'm serious."
"Madre mía..."
At the reactions of the Barcelona coaches, the Main PD's mouth split into an enormous grin.
And of course, not everyone liked me.
"Joo! Press! Press!"
The coach with the distinctive hairstyle jabbed a finger in my direction.
Something about how my stamina was great but I refused to run?
Then he launched into a lecture about the importance of high pressing in modern football.
He even gave me a stern warning that a lazy striker would never survive in the modern game.
I let it go in one ear and out the other.
Why would I bother... running around with a bunch of little kids?
As I've said, it's not that I can't — I just don't.
But I didn't bother explaining that to the coach.
The whole process of explaining, persuading, and convincing someone point by point was a hassle.
Showing is easier than telling, a hundred times over.
Human beings, as a species, have a strong tendency not to believe anything unless they see it with their own eyes.
And the best way to convince such people is to show them performing on the actual pitch.
Besides, that opportunity was bound to arrive before long.
I just need to prove it in front of Messi, that's all.
***
Once the youth training sessions ended each day, Barcelona's youth coaches gathered together for a meeting.
The main subject of this meeting was the youngsters from Korea.
"Save the discussion about Joo for last. There's a lot to say about him, it seems."
"For me, it was... Kim Hyun-sung? That boy left an impression."
"Ah, that kid was a joy to watch working hard. And he had some real talent, too."
The coaches evaluated the cast of Fly World Class 11 — everyone except Joo Jae-rim.
"And finally, the boy named Jae-rim."
The moment Joo Jae-rim's name was called, silence fell.
Each coach seemed to be gathering his thoughts on how to put Joo Jae-rim into words.
"He is perfect. No other modifier is necessary."
The hulking coach opened the discussion first.
Starting with him, one positive assessment of Joo Jae-rim followed another.
Joan Soler, director of youth development, raised a hand to settle the coaches, then naturally steered them toward another answer.
"Then is there nothing worth pointing out as a weakness?"
As the other coaches hesitated at the question of Joo Jae-rim's flaws—
"He's lazy."
The coach with the striking Apollo haircut answered immediately. It was the coach who had called out Joo Jae-rim for not running.
He sat there with a face full of grievance over Joo Jae-rim ignoring his instructions.
"Lazy?"
At Joan Soler's words, the other coaches nodded as well.
They, too, had never once seen Joo Jae-rim defend.
No one could deny that Joo Jae-rim was lazy.
But Coach Rodrigo, newly arrived at La Masia this season, pushed back against their claims.
"Did Messi not also keep his activity low? I don't think limited work rate is a major problem."
The Apollo-haired coach snorted at Rodrigo's words before replying.
"He's Asian."
His tone was firm, as if to say there was no chance of a player on Lionel Messi's level ever coming out of Asia.
Everyone frowned at the remark about race — but the people around him reacted much like the Apollo-haired coach anyway.
To them as well, Lionel Messi was a religion and the saint of the football world.
"Mind what you say."
Joan Soler likewise only issued a firm warning about mentioning race; he did not disagree with the man's opinion.
......
Rodrigo let out a quiet sigh.
Ever since La Masia had produced Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal, its coaches had grown insufferably arrogant.
What was truly great was Barcelona's supply of promising youngsters drawn by the club's prestige, and its systematic youth structure for developing them — not the coaching staff itself.
That said, they weren't entirely incompetent. Without ability, you couldn't even get hired as a youth coach.
But the current La Masia coaches took far too much pride in their own abilities.
They genuinely believed that every great player produced here was thanks to their own brilliance.
...Is it really okay, letting things go on like this?
Rodrigo began to feel a creeping sense of crisis — that because of this arrogance, they might overlook a player in whom glimpses of true greatness shone through.
***
Barcelona's schedule for Fly World Class 11 flew by.
The players grew steadily through the training sessions.
Their football had visibly improved compared to before the filming began.
Thwack. Smack.
"Kyaaah!"
Of course, there existed certain cast members who had changed little since the first day of filming.
Min-jung is still hopeless with her body.
PD Hwang Hyun-woo let out a bitter laugh at Yoo Min-jung's total lack of progress. Apparently, when talent is absent, effort goes unrewarded.
Still wearing that rueful smile, Hwang Hyun-woo recalled something from the past.
"Yoo Min-jung — does that kid actually practice? Every other kid's improved, so why is she the only one stuck in place?"
A viewer had left that comment about Yoo Min-jung's stagnant skills.
To clear up the viewers' misunderstanding, Hwang Hyun-woo had no choice but to broadcast footage of Min-jung arriving at the training ground earlier than everyone else, every single day, for extra individual practice.
Yoo Min-jung had despaired while monitoring the broadcast at the time, but she bounced back quickly thanks to the viewers' surprisingly kind reactions.
"Wow! Thanks to Jae-rim, we get to meet both Ronaldo AND Messi before we leave!"
"I know, right?"
An unnameable tension hung over the set.
The news that Lionel Messi would be visiting had arrived that very morning.
"Cameras! Lighting! Audio — everybody checked?"
"Yes!"
And a short while later.
Lionel Messi arrived at the set.
Hwang Hyun-woo's gaze went not to Lionel Messi, but to Joo Jae-rim.
He was dying to know how Joo Jae-rim would react upon seeing Messi.
And Hwang Hyun-woo couldn't help but be taken aback.
Huh? What's gotten into Jae-rim?
Joo Jae-rim, famous for his trademark indifference, was staring holes through Lionel Messi.
Even Jae-rim gets nervous in front of Messi?