Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 125



Only Krnovel

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England, London.

There was still quite a bit of time left until the next game, and my training schedule was empty today and tomorrow, so I followed my mom to London.

‘Is this Son’s city?’

For some reason, I feel like asking this question to any foreigner passing by on the street.

Despite his remarkable performances both on his club team and on the national team, I have yet to meet Son Heung-min.

Still, I guess they know about my existence. I’ll probably be called up for the next national team call-up, so I’ll actually be able to welcome them… But I still feel regretful.

‘I’ve seen Lee Kang-im and Kim Min-je, so now all I have to do is watch the last Captain Son and I’ll have seen all three gods.’

When I think about it, I really have succeeded.

It seems like only yesterday that I was forced to play goalkeeper in the Goalie Football League, and now I’m preparing to welcome Son Heung-min as a teammate on the national team…

“Son, let’s go.”

“huh.”

As soon as we left the airport, we caught a taxi and went to the H&B company.

We must not forget. We are here on business.

···Still, since we still have quite a bit of time before the next flight to Germany, let’s take a look around the company and then explore London.

“Hmm? Um, maybe.”

As we were gazing blankly at the London cityscape, the taxi driver glanced at us through his rearview mirror and asked us a question.

“Are you a soccer player by any chance? Playing in the Bundesliga?”

I looked at my mom at that question. She looked at me too. We laughed without saying who would speak first.

“Yes, that’s right. How did you know?”

Mom’s fluent English. The taxi driver smiled and answered.

“How can you not know? He’s the hottest goalkeeper these days. He won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. And he’s a Korean guy who hasn’t conceded a single goal since his debut. What’s going on in London? He must be in the middle of the season.”

“Well, it’s top secret.”

The taxi driver opened his eyes wide at my words and nodded.

“Oh. Really? Then tell me just this. Is it Tottenham or Arsenal?”

“Of course Tottenham. That’s where my captain is.”

“Ohhh… Welcome Kim!”

The taxi driver suddenly offered his hand behind me as I waited at a traffic light. I grabbed his hand and waved along to him.

“nice to meet you.”

This guy, is this guy thinking that I’m transferring to Tottenham or something? I think I got the gist of it.

‘The chicken coop is me?’

They say the owner of this club is a miser who saves a lot of money. There is also a rumor that Arsenal is just as stingy.

‘Well, but I’m bound by a buyout anyway, so I might want it.’

Of course, the prerequisite was ‘I will maintain my current performance until the end of the season.’

And if I transfer, I want to go to a team with a stronger defense.

After finishing his time as a boy at Suyang High School and Hannover, he wanted to play as an ordinary player like other goalkeepers for his next team.

“Have fun in London, Kim.”

“thank you.”

He was a friendly taxi driver.

We arrived at our destination in a good mood, got off, and entered the H&B building.

H&B. So, Health & Beauty Sports Management’s headquarters was one of the forest of buildings.

It was a 40-story high-rise building, but of course the agency company didn’t use all 40 floors, only one of them.

14th floor out of 40 floors.

‘Surely you didn’t go to the 14th floor and only use half of it, right?’

I hope it’s not a startup that’s divided into partitions. Of course, I already know from my mom that it’s not like that, but just in case…

After getting an explanation at the information desk and going up to the 14th floor, we were greeted by a line of yellow-haired foreigners.

“Nice to meet you, Kim!”

“Welcome!”

The feelings we felt as soon as we arrived here were joy, welcome, excitement and delight.

‘Well, from these people’s perspective, I’m a big shot. When I look at it, there isn’t a single famous player among the players here.’

That must have caught my mom’s eye.

Since they are nothing special compared to other huge agencies, they have no choice but to make tempting offers.

And we were guided to a conference room with a view of London’s magnificent buildings, and we chatted about our daily lives.

As a football agency, most of the daily stories are about football. Who moved to where? This season looks to be quite competitive in both the EPL and the Bundesliga. The Champions League looks exciting too.

My mother is not the type of person to enjoy such trivial stories, so she listened to them a few times and then got straight to the point.

When the topic of work came up, the agency staff also showed seriousness in their eyes.

And we talk about all kinds of professional things.

‘I have no idea what you’re saying…’

It’s true that I’m learning English hard from Sophie, and I can communicate to some extent when I have everyday conversations, but when it comes to professional conversations like this, I become Korean again.

What you’re speaking is a twisted language, and what I’m hearing is an alien language…

There are some translations here and there, but I can’t say that I understood it 100%.

I nodded a few times, pretending to concentrate and understand.

And how much time has passed?

Mom asked for a handshake.

“It was a good meeting. I’ll be in touch soon.”

“I will wait for your call, ma’am.”

The other person who shakes hands with a smile.

“I hope Kim has a lot of luck in the future. By the way, how long do you plan on keeping a clean sheet?”

The other employee smiled and asked me to shake his hand.

I smiled vaguely and shook his hand.

“As much as I can.”

“Oh. That’s a good sense of purpose.”

And we left the company, seen off by all the former employees of H&B.

I asked my mom in the elevator.

“What the heck? Are you signing a contract?”

“Didn’t you understand?”

“Not yet. It’s hard to learn German and English at the same time.”

Mom nodded as if she understood.

“First of all, 80%? The conditions are so good that I don’t know if other agencies will even consider it.”

“···Huh? Is that all?”

“They know that we are a small company compared to other agencies, so they are including a few special provisions. I will have to consult a European lawyer here before signing the contract, but it is a very good deal for us, son.”

“oh···.”

When I see my mom say this, I guess it must be really great.

I said, scratching my head.

“What is the special contract?”

“You said you could terminate the contract without penalty whenever we want?”

“uh?”

“If you are not satisfied with H&B’s handling of your business, your contract will be terminated immediately. No conditions.”

I blinked.

Is this what you have to do to survive the tyranny of big business?

And the elevator door opens. It’s the first floor.

“Let’s go, son. We have plenty of time before we return to Hanover, so let’s take a trip to London.”

“Oh, yeah.”

I chased after my mom like crazy.

“Mom! Let’s go there! What is that? Big Ben? That clock tower thing!”

“Okay. Let’s go wherever my son wants to go!”

“Well, can we go to the palace too? Birmingham Palace?”

“You mean Buckingham Palace? Yeah! Let’s go!”

What is this? Take this?

“Isn’t Buckingham Palace in Buckingham?”

When I responded like that, my mother looked at me a little strangely and said,

“Buckingham is not a city, it’s a person’s name.”

Ah… This is why you shouldn’t pretend to know when you don’t.

*

It was a few days after I returned to Hanover after a short but intense trip from London.

[Kim Shin-ah: What is this??]

Kim Shin-ah posted some overseas news in a group chat.

I clicked on it to do something.

《The hot topic goalkeeper, Hannover’s Kim! Discovered in London! “Not Arsenal, but Tottenham”》

“What is this···”

Although it was an English article, sentences like this could be translated smoothly.

Even this article had pictures.

“No, wait a minute. This was taken by a taxi driver!”

The article included photos of me on the street taken by a taxi driver, from the side and back. They were clearly taken from the driver’s seat.

[Kim Shin-ah: Are you playing with Son Heung-min next year? Haha]

[Kim Shin-ah: But the Tottenham uniform is pretty, right?]

Knock knock.

[Kim Min-woo: No, I thought this taxi driver was a kind person, but wow… I guess he reported it. Seriously, if you just read the article, people will think he’s going to Tottenham next year.]

[Kim Shin-a: Isn’t it official?]

[Kim Min-woo: I went to meet the agency;]

[Choi Sung-hee: It’s a bit weird, but… I’m always in favor of my son going to a big club^^]

[Kim Shin-a: Tottenham… a big club?]

[Kim Min-woo: Wow, Tobik-ah, casting;]

[Kim Shin-ah: Honestly, if I could go, I would like to go to Real Madrid! The uniform there is really pretty! Isn’t it the white and gold combination??]

Oh. Wait a minute. I had saved a photo in my gallery for this moment.

I took my time, searched the gallery, and uploaded the photos.

[Kim Min-woo: (Photo 1)]

[Kim Shin-ah: Hahahahahahahaha]

[Kim Shin-ah: I’ll give you a thumbs up for not being arrogant]

A photo of Son Hong-min’s father, Son Yong-jeong, asserting that our Hong-min is absolutely not a world-class person.

Anyway, starting with that article, all kinds of yellow press started to spread all kinds of excitement on the Internet about me going to Tottenham next season based on my trip to London and the taxi driver’s interview.

[Lee Kang-im: What is this~ Is our Min and our Hong meeting? LOL]

[Jo Young-woo: Wow. I really want to see the combination of two Koreans on the same team. Let’s go, Min-woo!]

Of course, there was chaos in the national team group chat. Are they really going to Tottenham? Is their advance to the EPL confirmed? And it wasn’t just them, other people contacted them, and the British flyer hit all of Europe and even South Korea.

In a flash.

“Real information spreads really fast.”

I realized the fear of the globalization era.

What kind of information spreads so quickly? In just one day, it’s causing a stir in South Korea, on the other side of the world…

Even when I told people that this was a rumor and not true, they didn’t believe me.

Rather, I guessed that there was a secret agreement with Tottenham and that he wasn’t telling the truth. Well, it seemed like he was joking, but… I just assumed that was the case.

It’ll probably quiet down in a few weeks.

It’s a flyer, but it’s Tottenham.

If I go, my running mate will definitely be Woori Hong.

*

And time passed.

Hannover’s next opponent was Bochum.

The players were practicing hard at the training ground as the next game was just around the corner.

And I was also mixed in here and was training hard.

“Kim!”

Corsic approaches me with a bright expression. I thought he was going to talk about Tottenham again because I had teased him several times about going to Tottenham.

“There are quite a few Korean fans who came to the training ground. Shouldn’t I go say hello?”

Ah. Korean fans?

What Corsic said was something I’ve been feeling a lot lately, especially since winning the gold medal at the Olympics, that Korean fans have been showing up quite often at the stadium and training grounds.

When you say ‘appearance’, it sounds like you’re talking about wild animals, but anyone who looked at it could see that it was Koreans waving the Taegeukgi and waiting for me.

“Uh, um···.”

At first, I was quite happy that they came all the way to the training ground to cheer me on, but recently, it has become a burden.

Since they came all the way from faraway Korea just to see me, I felt a bit awkward leaving after only saying hello and talking to them for a few minutes.

“First, finish your training.”

I completed all the training given in Hanover and checked to see if there were any fans left…

“Player Kim Min-woo!”

“Whoa!”

Oh, you’re still here.

I waved both hands to show my joy.

Most of them were new to us, but some of them looked familiar.

“Oh my, thank you for coming all the way here. Aren’t you tired? You’ve been training for quite some time.”

“It’s okay! It was fun just to watch!”

Five men and five women.

I talked to them for quite some time out of gratitude.

“Now I remember this person and this person’s faces completely. How many times have they been to the stadium?”

“Yes! Because I live in Germany! Hehe.”

And I shook hands with each and every one of them. I signed autographs for those who asked for them.

“I want to see Kim Min-woo in the national team match soon!”

“Haha, me too.”

“By the way, is it true that you are going to Tottenham?”

I feel like my eyes are really focused on those words.

I wondered how to react, then put my index finger to my lips. At that moment, someone was filming me with a camera. It must have been a video.

“Top Secret.”

***

Round 9, match against Bochum.

The match was played at Hannover’s home ground.

Hannover currently has 3 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses in 6 matches, which is not a bad start for a team that just came up from the 2nd division.

10 points. We are in 9th place, but if we steadily accumulate points in each game, we will eventually be able to beat Leipzig, Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and even Leverkusen, who gave us the 4th place.

Is this too much to hope for?

Well anyway.

“Kim! Please!”

At this very moment, Corsic’s voice sounds like a hallucination.

I flew to block Bochum’s crucial goal-scoring opportunity. One of two trajectories.

Thanks to his quick appearance, I was able to prepare in advance and block him just in time.

“As expected! Our Kim!”

Corsic’s baptism of the tit.

“Go to Jeolu.”

And then came a barrage of indiscriminate shots.

First of all, a shot from outside the penalty box.

“Tchcha.”

It was a wild shot.

And a header shot from a corner kick.

“Tchcha.”

This is also the composition I am most confident in.

And then there’s the free kick shot.

Liar-!

Since the trajectory was already narrowly missing the goal, I just jumped.

The shots aimed at the goal today are lacking in nutrients.

And just before the end of the second half, the opponent crosses from the side, and the attacker heads the ball accurately and aims for the left goal.

It was a quick shot, but······.

“Tchcha.”

As always, the header was the composition I was most confident in.

I wouldn’t have been able to get a header unless some crazy guy was holding me back.

“Fuck! Eww!”

The Bochum striker, who had been blocked by me throughout the match, collapses on the ground screaming.

I looked at him with a salty look and then sent him forward with a quick and accurate kick.

and···.

Beep- beep- beep-!

Game over.

Hannover wins 1-0 again.

I’m going to suck up some points.

End

ⓒ Doctor Am