Today Is the Best -1
“Who is he?”
“Huh?”
“I said, who is he?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You gonna play dumb? Who is he. Number 20.”
After the match.
Vino Botteli, coach of the Napoli U17 team, asks, extending his hand.
Coach Toni, who shared a close bond with him, shrugged and joked,
“He’s just filling in for Gino. Why do you ask?”
“You tryin’ to bullshit me? Anyone can see you’re raising him like a precious gem. I’m asking where he suddenly popped out from.”
Come to think of it, Napoli hadn’t participated in that program three years ago.
“I brought him from Juventus. So what.”
“Juve? But why am I seeing him for the first time? How long was he at Juve?”
“Three years. Couldn’t play there.”
“Couldn’t play? With that skill? Even if it’s Juve, with that level he should be the ace. Why?”
“Don’t dig too deep, friend.”
As Coach Toni chuckled, Coach Vino let out a sigh. This sly bastard.
“Anyway, you picked him up from somewhere nice. He’s Korean, right?”
“Yeah.”
“They seem to be hot these days.”
“They are. There are a lot of hidden gems over there.”
“We’ve been keeping an eye out too. I think it was Galatasaray, or maybe Fenerbahçe. I heard there’s a Korean monster defender playing there.”
“…Turkey? How old is he?”
“Don’t know. Mid-twenties, I think.”
“What, you punk. He’s not even a youth player, so why are you telling me that now?”
“Dunno, punk. Anyway, prepare well for the next match. It’ll be different then.”
“Get lost.”
“Get lost.”
After exchanging fond greetings and turning away, Coach Toni snickered.
The punk’s got an eye for talent.
No.
If he had seen I Jian today, he couldn’t help but drool even without an eye for it. Even a girl who knew nothing about football would have seen I Jian as a genius.
Well, anyway, he felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest.
Honestly, he had been confident. Even if the opponent was Napoli, he had been confident that I Jian would do well.
But in this field, nothing is one hundred percent certain, so it was true that he had felt some anxiety.
If the results hadn’t been good, the boy could have been discouraged.
But both the process and the result were good.
He had watched in real time as the boy gained confidence during the match. The boy had grown, and he would grow more in the future. If he started piling up results like this, the team would hurry to prepare a contract too.
It was as Coach Toni was heading toward the locker room with a proud heart.
“Ah, right.”
Coach Vino, who had been walking ahead, stopped and turned around to ask.
“Has that friend signed a pro contract?”
At that question, Coach Toni raised his middle finger without hesitation. He felt extremely unpleasant, as if some old man were drooling and asking if his daughter was married yet.
He had cherished and nurtured him like gold and jade, and had just gotten him through adolescence.
And now someone dared to cast eyes on him.
Are you crazy? My boy. You bastard.
*
Dragging his exhausted body, he left the noisy locker room.
It had been a really tough match.
But they won. A 2-1 victory.
Having beaten a tough opponent in a tough match, it was only natural that the locker room was that loud.
“Hooo…”
He sighed as he walked down the hallway with his bag on his back.
His body felt like lead.
A match was definitely on a different level from training.
He hadn’t even run the full 90 minutes—only exactly 60—and yet it was like this.
It was really hard, maybe too hard, but…
“…”
He suddenly laughed. He was tired, but in a good mood.
After the match ended, he had received a lot of praise.
The coach, the coaches, the teammate kids… no one held back on praise for me.
It was a bit embarrassing, and since I wondered if I deserved such praise, I didn’t show it outwardly, but…
Still, I felt good.
It felt good. A little… no, a lot.
Come to think of it, this seemed to be the first time I had been praised like this since coming to Italy.
Early in my time studying abroad… there definitely hadn’t been any when I played in Torino. Not after coming to this team either.
It had been an incredibly long time since Korea… no, wait. Thinking about it again, even when I was in Korea, I don’t think I had ever received such pure praise?
Hmm… that was how it was back then.
On days when I played much better than today, criticism came before praise. What was lacking, what I had to work harder on… those were the first words I heard.
Wow. Today really is the first time I’ve been praised like this. The occasional talk about having talent, about being a genius—those hadn’t felt like praise from where I stood.
Right? It’s not praise to tell someone who’s working hard to earn a living that they were born with a gold spoon.
“Wow…”
Honestly, it was a bit of a shock, so I carefully looked back on my childhood. Really none? A time I had been praised?
…Ah, there were some.
If I ate my food well, they said I ate well. If I presented in class, they said I did well. If we went shopping, they said I had an eye for things. If I ran a match, they said I worked hard…
They were really nothing much, hard to even call praise.
Thinking about it, every single one was praise I had received from one person.
That’s really true.
The only person who praised me no matter what I did…
“Hey!”
“…Ah.”
I woke from my distracting thoughts at the clear voice.
At the stadium entrance, Jiu was waving her hand toward me. I headed toward Jiu with light steps.
“Goodness, our Jian. You worked hard? Wow, how did you run like that on such a hot day?”
The moment she saw me, Jiu was acting like a noona again.
She looked hotter than me. Her hair was wet, and her white cheeks were flushed red.
Even if there was shade, being outside for over 90 minutes on a day like this… it was strange that she was fine at all.
When I stared at Jiu, she tilted her head and patted my back.
“Get a hold of yourself, mister…! You can’t collapse here!”
“…Let’s hurry up.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re really tired, huh? Well, it’d be strange if you weren’t. Want me to carry your bag?”
“…My bag?”
I laughed, dumbfounded.
No matter how tired I looked, come on. Who was offering to carry whose bag?
“You little thing.”
“What? Little? Damn. Up until elementary school, I was taller than you, you know?”
“That’s ancient history.”
“Wow, this is unfair. Did you get tall, Jian?”
“I sure did.”
Instead, I snatched the bag she had been wearing on one shoulder.
Come to think of it, why was she watching the whole match on such a hot day for me?
“I got big enough to earn money now. I’ll buy you gelato. Let’s go.”
As I took the lead and walked, Jiu followed, inserting strange exclamations as if dumbfounded.
Then she started teasing me about my celebration again, but I ignored her, letting it go in one ear and out the other.
When she got mad again, I giggled.
Walking with Jiu, who chattered incessantly without rest, I suddenly had a thought.
I felt like I finally knew why I had ended up lying without even realizing it when it came to Jiu.
She had believed in me like no one else, and I had wanted to live up to that faith. I had lied because I didn’t want to break that trust.
I wanted to keep doing that in the future too.
It wasn’t something said out of a simple feeling of not wanting to get caught in a lie.
I wanted to make the trust I was receiving real.
Yes.
I will become a real genius.
That thought floated around in my heart.
…….
“Excuse me, Coach?”
“Huh? Jian. What is it?”
“Um, there’s something I’d like to ask.”
“Go ahead. What is it?”
“After team training finishes, would it be alright if I trained separately at the training ground?”
“Uh… you mean individual training?”
“Yes.”
At my question, Coach Toni rubbed his chin.
Hmm… had it been an overstepping request? The coach couldn’t answer easily.
After the Sunday match.
Yesterday, during Monday recovery training, I had felt it clearly. The most urgent thing was my lack of stamina.
Last time, I had only run for about 10 minutes, so I had felt somewhat awkward even during recovery training.
Yesterday, I truly understood why they called it recovery training. There wasn’t a single muscle that wasn’t sore, and my whole body was as heavy as cotton soaked in water.
I found the kids who played matches every week newly admirable.
So I wanted to do additional training.
Of course, team training wasn’t easy, but it usually ended in less than two hours, so there was a lot of time left.
I wanted to use that remaining time to catch up to the other kids more.
When I thought about the time I had wasted since coming to Italy, I was quite far behind.
“Alright. What do you want to train more?”
“Ah, um… stamina training, and dribbling and shooting training would probably be enough.”
At my words, Coach Toni seemed to think about something for a moment, then soon nodded.
“Good. Let’s do that. I’ll tell Luca to keep an eye on you.”
“Uh… there’s no need to go that far.”
“What are you talking about. We are responsible for all training. You need supervision.”
“Ah, understood.”
Coach Toni patted my shoulder.
“Don’t feel pressured. Anyway, Luca there has been earning a weekly wage too high for his work, so this works out well.”
“Thank you…”
Ugh.
Did I ask for something I shouldn’t have? Coach Luca’s leave just got delayed because of me.
Well, still… it can’t be helped. I was in a position where I had to pay the price for wasting time all this while.
Besides, school starts in a few days, so I wanted to focus intensely until then.
I bowed to the coach and then prepared for training again.
*
“Ha, really. I was so moved I couldn’t get my words out.”
“You’ve had a hard time, Coach.”
Coach Luca nodded and chimed in at Coach Toni’s words.
The two were talking about what had just happened, briefly away from the kids.
Damn.
Who would have thought the day would come when I Jian came to him first saying he wanted to train more.
Coach Toni had been so moved he couldn’t answer right away and had choked up.
So this day comes. This day has come.
It was a moment when the days he had waited for the boy, holding himself back, were coming to fruition.
“It seems he’s getting a bit ambitious too, right?”
“Isn’t that right. He must have gained confidence. How’s that, my foresight? Starting him against Napoli was a jackpot, wasn’t it?”
“You’re exhausting.”
“I let you take all the credit too, didn’t I?”
“Phew. As expecteeeed of our master coach Toni Lucho!”
“Are you mocking me?”
Oh my. Coach Toni, who had made as if to raise his hand, let out a short laugh.
But then, his expression soon turned gloomy.
“Why?”
“How I raised him. If he starts training hard on top of that, he’ll leave before long.”
“Anyone listening would think you’d had him for ten years. It’s been less than a year.”
“Eight months felt like ten years. And, I first saw him three years ago.”
“Anyway, isn’t it good if he moves up early? No need to feel sad. Paolo is coming to watch the next match.”
Paolo is the youth team director.
He’s in charge of youth side contracts too.
“Didn’t you send the video?”
“I sent it. But he says he has to see with his own eyes. As if he’s some old-timer.”
“Hmm.”
Coach Toni recalled Director Paolo’s stubborn face.
From his position, he was just doing his job, but still, that man had a tendency to lowball contracts too much. Knowing full well how many times the weekly wage would jump with a pro contract, he always dragged his feet.
It’s not even his own money, yet every day it’s money, money, money.
But…
“Let’s prepare well for the match. It could be a match that changes Fiorentina’s future.”
“Yessir.”
That man won’t have a choice this time, will he?
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