00020 Drawing Attention ------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Cha Beomgeun thought that meeting Minjun like this was the will of God.
In the 1997 World Cup final qualifiers, grouped with Japan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the UAE, the team achieved six wins, one draw, and one loss. The Korean media, filled with expectations, reported as if advancing to the Round of 16 was a foregone conclusion, pressuring him and the national team.
Overseas, they praised this result as a very decent achievement based solely on the final qualifiers, and perhaps dismissing reports that the Round of 16 would be difficult as if brushing them off his ears, such negative foreign articles weren't published anywhere. Instead, the media were busy getting ahead of themselves toward the people.
Despite being in a group with teams that passed the World Cup Round of 16 as easily as eating a meal, like an annual event—Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium—they hyped up that damned Round of 16 advancement. If the players had even been in decent condition, he might have tried to challenge it, but… everything was the worst.
Among the players at the time, conditions were a mess, and the main striker Hwang Seonhong was already out due to an injury sustained in an evaluation match against China.
Moreover, one of the key midfielders, Ha Seokju, had scored a goal and joined Garingha Club, creating an overall hopeless situation where nothing could be done, and in the end, he was replaced as manager during the World Cup.
Disgrace.
He had truly suffered an act that could be called humiliating, and because of this, Cha Beomgeun lived like a hermit, just as before, and focused on the football academy he had established.
He was tired of the media's absurd hype, his affection had waned, and there was resentment toward people who couldn't judge objectively because they were swayed by the media, so in order to shake all of this off, he focused solely on this place.
Fortunately, the time spent living like a hermit helped heal the emotional wounds from that period significantly, and in 2001, MBS offered him a commentator position.
Appearing before the public brought great emotional complexity, but after much consideration, he accepted the commentator position. Unlike the media that hyped things up, he intended to provide objective commentary based on data as a commentator, conveying Korea's current position and the direction in which it should develop.
While working hard to live a second life as a commentator, Cha Beomgeun received contact from Frankfurt.
It was about a Korean youth who had become an issue in Germany, something he had heard several times through the grapevine, and the club said they had no one to provide tutoring, so they asked him for even a short time.
In the past, even though he had been curious and wanted to see, his surrounding circumstances at the time and many complicated emotional matters prevented him from looking after the boy, but now he had much more leeway than back then, so he accepted, thinking he could observe the prospect named Minjun with a somewhat comfortable heart.
Above all, since it was a period of about two months, he could sufficiently take the time, so he accepted Frankfurt's proposal.
Having come to teach Minjun like that, Cha Beomgeun was simply in a continuous state of surprise; he couldn't understand how a child like Minjun had come to Germany without any rumors spreading in Korea.
From what he heard of the conversation with Daniel, Minjun's great-uncle, Daniel said he had connected Minjun with Frankfurt when Minjun had almost been connected somewhere else instead of Frankfurt.
This meant that Minjun definitely had a connection line built with a figure related to football, but there was almost no one in the current Korean football world who had connections in Germany, and it was also surprising that there was someone who could make connections without it being known to him.
Above all, the outstanding talent that could fulfill the bold and spirited words Minjun had said added surprise upon surprise even as he taught him.
He, too, was someone who had possessed talent called genius.
He had been a presence so highly praised that it would be no exaggeration to say he stood at the very pinnacle of the Bundesliga during his playing days.
However, if one compared his younger self at Minjun's age with the current Minjun, Minjun was excellent even when viewed objectively.
While not overwhelmingly superior, he was excellent, and he showed talent capable of doing things that he himself had been unable to do, giving him a true sense of exhilaration from the position of a teacher.
"Two months… It's such a pity that I can only teach for a mere two months."
Faced with Minjun's talent, which was full of the desire to learn even one more thing from the position of a teacher, Cha Beomgeun thought that perhaps Minjun could reach the pinnacle that he himself had failed to reach in the past Bundesliga due to various surrounding and social factors.
While he couldn't point to a specific time, if Minjun truly continued to grow like this, he would definitely reach that place he himself had not reached, and beyond Korean football, he would change all of Asian football history.
As time passed, admiring Minjun's attitude, Cha Beomgeun, whose passion for teaching had already been great, fell further for Minjun's talent and poured out all the teaching passion he had been unable to unleash until now, while Minjun absorbed the pouring knowledge, experience, and skills over the two months.
The period of two months, long if long and short if short, really passed in the blink of an eye, and Cha Beomgeun regretfully handed Minjun a bundle of videotapes until the day he left.
He had recorded more advanced football-related things on video during his own rest period for Minjun, having explained and talked about them in great detail, believing that if it was Minjun, he would be able to sufficiently master them.
And he decided to adjust his schedule, changing his occasional trips to Germany to stay for at least about one week every two months.
Later, there would be difficult parts in the schedule, but he thought this much effort had to be made for Minjun to reach not just the top level he had imagined, but the world of pinnacles. The thought that he would create such a player was truly thrilling, so Cha Beomgeun returned to Korea, wanting to finish all his own schedule quickly and teach Minjun.
Cha Beomgeun's appearance of caring for him even when leaving greatly moved Minjun, and he felt great gratitude and affection for the club called Frankfurt for allowing him to meet such a good teacher. Since the club that raised him was making such efforts, he thought he should at least break through the utterly dark current situation and go to a bigger stage.
And perhaps because they had seen through Minjun's psychology, or perhaps not, Frankfurt showed more proactive support and will than before in order to perfectly solidify the peak affection Minjun felt for the club now, tempering and hardening Minjun's heart.
* * *
After the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, when Korea's miracle of reaching the semifinals was written, the people's interest, the interest in Korean football, reached its peak.
As Korean football players advanced overseas, domestic and foreign agents also began taking an interest in the market called Korea.
Among them, the hottest figures were the main actors of the semifinal miracle, but one agent was different.
He had already set his eyes on a boy who reigned as a powerhouse in Germany's youth league even before them.
Catching those who had begun receiving attention by displaying their skills at the World Cup would realistically be quite helpful, but there he would have to start a very tiresome battle of wits.
However, the one he had his eyes on still had no contact from agents yet, though there was competition between clubs.
Since the one who was his relative and guardian was German and currently managing everything, it seemed he was perceived as an agent, but when he secretly looked into it, that was not the case.
So he thought this moment, when all attention was fixed on the World Cup stars, was the most optimal timing, and attempted a direct approach faster than anyone else.
Having tidied up his clothes and exhaled a few deep breaths to ease his tension, he looked at the house before his eyes.
And the moment he cautiously tried to press the doorbell… a voice was heard from behind him.
"Who is it?"
"Huh!?"
Turning his head, there was Minjun in training clothes with beads of sweat dripping down, as if he had exercised, and the person himself rather than the guardian came out, so flustered at not knowing how to start the conversation that he stammered.
This was his first meeting with Minjun.
---------------------------= Author's Afterword ---------------------------=
Hmm... Mr. Cha Beomgeun really did go to Germany around that time. ㅠ
They even published birthday wishes for him in German newspapers and stuff. ㅠ
Well, he wasn't there for long, but... ㅠ Still, I wrote this connected to that~.
As the explanation in the passage above from this time says...
-ㅅ-;; Because of the situation, he got cursed at like crazy..
It might seem a bit forced, but... didn't it seem plausible enough? ㅠ;;;
Frankfurt.. has so few strikers. ㅠㅠ
There are even midfielders who scored double-digit goals, but...
=ㅅ=
The strikers are a cancerous state.