The Promise of a Hat-Trick
My right leg snapped back with explosive force. With the mindset that I was staking everything on this single shot, I swung through with all my power. I locked my ankle, striking the ball at the precise impact point. Whoosh—!! There was no spin on the ball. The lack of rotation created chaotic airflow, sending it swerving wildly in every direction. I knew the opposing goalkeeper was an excellent shot-stopper. But this... even if he got a hand to it, it wouldn't matter. That's how viciously I had struck it.
Bang—!! The opposing goalkeeper dove desperately. He stretched his arm to its absolute limit. My ball blasted past his fingertips and slammed into the back of the net, making it ripple violently. Thwack—!!
The equalizer. In just eight minutes, both sides had traded a goal each. A match with this kind of breakneck tempo was pure joy. Dopamine was exploding through my veins—what must it feel like for the fans in the stands?
The Pericos who had refused to believe in me the entire match rose from their seats. They no longer saw me as the Short-term Flop. After a year of dismal form, that single goal in a vital fixture had changed everything. That one strike had transformed me into Espanyol’s promising young star. In just one day, with just one goal, I had become a hero.
“Lee! You did it! You really did it!!”
It wasn’t even a winning goal—just an equalizer. Plenty of time remained. Yet in this moment, our entire team celebrated as if we had already claimed victory. We had refused to be intimidated by a powerhouse like La Masia. We had scored an equalizer against them. As the underdogs, perhaps today we had finally proven we deserved to be their true rivals. That was the thought running through my mind.
“Lee! Our baby brother!”
“How the hell did you score from that distance? It was insane!!”
Daniel, Hugo, and John ruffled my hair like a pack of excited puppies.
...Hey, what are you guys doing? Hayun is right here—why are you messing up my hair in front of her?
I shook my head to fix my hair and turned to look at her. Kim Hayun was smiling brightly. Just moments earlier she had looked like she might burst into tears if anyone so much as touched her. Now she was radiant.
“Hey, Lee. Your girl is watching. Are you really just going to stand there grinning? You need a proper celebration.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Don’t you have anything in mind? Maybe go over to her and do a ring ceremony, or show off the team badge or something.”
No way. How could I do something that embarrassing?
“Just do something that’s you.”
What would be true to me? Well, I did want a hat-trick in this match. I had promised Hayun I would get one, after all. Yeah. In that case...
I stared straight at Hayun’s face and thrust my hand into the air. With my fist clenched, I extended three fingers. Then I slowly folded one.
Two.
Two goals still remained until a hat-trick.
“...!!”
Hayun’s eyes widened like saucers. She seemed to understand exactly what the celebration meant. She covered her mouth, shoulders shaking with quiet laughter.
If a manager had a dream tactic or style of play, it would be this. People say soccer is the manager’s game, but equally important are the talented players who perfectly understand those tactics and bring them to life on the pitch. Managers always want to unleash their ideas with the best possible squad. They want to deploy plans that catch their opponents completely off guard.
Ben, the coach of Espanyol’s U-18 side, had spent half his life working with youth teams. He harbored no grand ambitions of becoming a senior-team manager and lifting big-league trophies, Champions League cups, or Europa League honors. He simply wanted to witness the childhood years of geniuses who would one day dominate the sport. And he wanted to polish them so they could become even greater.
This was the tactic he had been dreaming of since the day he first laid eyes on me. In truth, it was a formation he had prepared specifically to use against Barcelona. A system designed to defeat La Masia—the academy that gathered the world’s finest young talents—by seizing control of the midfield against Barcelona’s trademark possession game.
Yet the greatest variable on the field right now wasn’t the tactic. It was me. Lee Suhyuk.
‘He’s finally back.’
The boy who had shone more brilliantly than anyone else a year ago had reappeared in the most important match of the season. Ben was quietly certain that I would soon outgrow his team.
Having conceded the equalizer, La Masia began to control the game with greater stability. The midfield battle raged on, with both sides winning and losing possession in equal measure. The ball shuttled back and forth in the second line, giving the match a somewhat tedious rhythm.
Then—BOOM—!!
Ebrima Tunkara unleashed a thunderous cannon shot. Espanyol’s goalkeeper made the save. Immediately came the counter.
The two central midfielders exchanged a crisp one-two, surging forward. Daniel tucked inside to create a triangle. Espanyol was playing the tiki-taka that La Masia loved so much.
The two Espanyol central midfielders who had struggled to find chemistry at the beginning of the half now moved in near-perfect sync. It seemed they had learned something from watching John and me.
“Cut it!”
La Masia’s attacking midfielders pushed their line high in an attempt to intercept our build-up. John dropped deeper. The space that opened up naturally invited a run.
Daniel’s pass carved across the grass and settled perfectly at John’s feet. Without hesitation, John switched play to the opposite flank, finding Hugo Romero. Hugo took the ball and raced down the wing. He drew the opposing fullback inside before whipping in a left-footed cross. The player who met it was none other than me.
The moment the ball touched my foot, I burst into the penalty area. The opposing center-back lunged in with his shoulder and stuck out a leg just like before.
Swish—!! I spun my body in one fluid motion. Dragging the ball with me as I turned, I fought off the second fullback who had rushed over. Even as I lost my balance and began to fall, I fought with everything I had to protect the ball.
Tap—!! I nudged it with my left foot. That ball—
Whoosh—!!
Thump—!!!
John met the ball I had protected until the final moment with a first-time strike that ripped into the net.
“Ugh…! Sorry! Lee! You were supposed to get the hat-trick!”
In that moment, John couldn’t fully celebrate the fact that he had scored. It was a goal he had desperately wanted. A goal in the derby carried a completely different weight. And it was against La Masia—the greatest youth academy in Spain. Scoring against them and catching the eyes of countless scouts had been John’s long-held dream, yet…
“Lee, I should have held the ball longer and given it to you. I’m sorry.”
He was genuinely apologizing for not yielding the goal to me. He looked truly regretful.
“…Ugh. I feel so bad about this.”
He spoke as if he had stolen someone else’s goal.
“…John, isn’t winning the most important thing?”
“That’s true, but still… I’m sorry. If I had kept the ball just a second longer, I could have laid it off to you. I was too hasty.”
Ah. So this is what a team feels like. I felt something hot rising in my chest. This blonde, tanned kid was more loyal than anyone I had ever met.
“Keep playing that way. Because winning is what matters most in the end.”
“…”
“Just create one more chance for me. I haven’t given up on that hat-trick yet.”
As I spoke, I glanced toward the stands. Even though I hadn’t scored the second goal, Kim Hayun was still smiling. That was more than enough.
John celebrated by wrapping me in a tight hug. He held up two fingers. Those two fingers pointed directly at me. It was his way of saying he would do everything he could to help me complete the hat-trick.
The Pericos were no longer simply cheering for the underdog. They refused to look defeated. As if this derby was their own festival, they enjoyed it more than anyone else. Win or lose, their focus had narrowed to one question: could Lee Suhyuk complete a hat-trick? They watched with bated breath, waiting for the young genius to deliver.
Beep—! Beep—! Beeeeep—!!!
The whistle blew to signal the end of the first half. The players headed back toward the locker rooms.
La Masia’s manager watched his players with a face twisted in fury. He knew Ben, Espanyol’s coach, quite well. They had met privately several times, and he respected him as a highly competent manager.
La Masia’s head coach spoke to his boss cautiously.
“It looks like Ben brought his tactics perfectly prepared. I never expected Espanyol to play football like that.”
“…No.”
“Sorry?”
“It’s not Espanyol.”
The manager’s gaze shifted to the tactics board.
“It’s that number 9. Lee.”
La Masia was supposed to be the greatest collection of young prospects in the world. Yet their elite talents had been completely dismantled by a single young striker from Espanyol in the first half.
‘…What a shame. It would have been perfect if that boy wore our colors.’
Suhyuk’s performance today had been so mesmerizing that the manager was already wondering if there was any way to bring him to La Masia. Still, Espanyol had to be defeated. Because this was FC Barcelona. Because today, these players represented the face of the club.
“We’re changing formation.”
A 5-3-2. A five-back designed solely to neutralize me. That was the plan for the second half. They had decided that if they could just shut me down, victory would be theirs.