Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 213
Only Krnovel
Episode 213 Footsteps
For Sophie, who had run a whopping 1,173km from Hanover to Manchester, I had a great time that day without thinking about anything else.
We eat, go to the movies, and play board games like Jenga and Lost City at board game cafes.
As I spent time like that, the weather suddenly became completely dark. Sophie also seemed to be having fun, so she stretched and said.
“Wow! That was really fun! Right?”
“Yes. It was fun after a long time.”
I talked about this and that. I said that next time we met, I would get my driver’s license and give her a ride in my car.
Sophie answered with a smile, and it was now time to part ways.
“I’m going to go now.”
“Um, Sophie?”
“yes?”
“Are you going straight to Hanover?”
“No? I’m going to stay in Manchester for a day.”
“Then please stay at my house.”
“… … N, what?”
Her already large eyes widened in surprise, and she became as big as a pot lid. In that moment, I realized what Sophie was thinking, and I felt embarrassed and hurriedly made an excuse.
“No, he came all the way to Manchester and asked me to see my mom. We haven’t decided on a place to stay yet, so we’re staying at a hotel, but the room is really big.”
“… Ah! Is that okay?”
“sure.”
At that very moment, my mom called me. When I picked up, it was this call. Where are you? Why aren’t you coming in?
Whether in Korea or England, my mother was my mother. She worried if I got home late.
“I was just hanging out with Sophie, who I haven’t seen in a while. She’s staying the night in Manchester. Is it okay if I take her to my house?”
My mother was excited at those words. She even joked that she would soon see her grandchild. I quickly covered the speaker area to block Sophie from hearing my mother’s voice.
“Mom said it’s okay for you to come. Should we go?”
“Oh, yes!”
We arrived at the hotel where we were staying for a while in Sophie’s car. Now, even the lobby felt very comfortable, like home.
As Sophie takes the elevator to her room, her mother greets her warmly.
“Sophie! How long has it been since this happened!”
“Hello, Mom! How have you been?”
And their relationship was as good as ever. Mom ordered dinner through room service, and we chatted and laughed.
“… So, are you two dating?”
And then there was Mom’s question. It was a strangely difficult question to answer. Before I could answer, additional questions came flying in.
“How far did Jindo go? Huh? Son? Did he just hold your hand?”
I coughed and looked away, and Sophie’s face was red. I’m sorry, Mom. I couldn’t even hold your hand…
“Sophie? Are you really dating? How long have you been interested in me? Since before I came to Germany?”
“Huh? That’s not it… .”
Sophie’s face was so red it looked like it was going to burst. Mom looked at us both in turn and then burst out laughing.
“Oh, sorry, sorry. I was being careless. I won’t interfere, so do your best~”
And then he talks to himself as if his mother wants him to hear.
“So, Shin-ah will soon become an aunt?”
“What are you talking about!”
“I’m joking~”
The grumbling mother. Why does her appearance remind me of my nagging younger sister?
* * *
And time passed quickly.
After the light work was over, it was the same routine: training, match, training, match… .
The opponent in the 7th round was Crystal Palace, a team that Koreans call Sujeong Palace.
A team in the lower-middle tier of the league.
Even though they are low in the rankings, it is safe to say that there are no easy opponents in the Premier League.
And I became the controller Kim for the first time in a long time in that match and coordinated the match as a whole.
He generously passed long balls forward and played a pivotal role in the build-up.
He dropped the ball like a bomb and sent it through, and the Crystal Palace defenders were dying to get their hands on my direct passes.
Bayer heads the ball down and Rashford runs solo. Then, when Rashford is blocked by defenders, he passes to Bayer without looking.
Bayer, who received a pass from behind, passed a defender and shot powerfully toward the left goal.
Just go for it.
Old Trafford is abuzz with Bayer’s opening goal.
Of course, Crystal Palace’s attacking chances were also quite threatening.
“Tchcha.”
However, the header leading to the cross doesn’t work for me. After that, he kept sending crosses, but I didn’t block the ones that hit the goal post on purpose. I was wasting my energy.
In the second half, Rashford and Bayer once again combined to score the second goal.
This time it’s Rashford’s goal, with Bayer providing the assist.
“Whew. Those two players really fit together well, don’t they?”
Cry out, Kim Jun-young. It looks like there is no place for you… .
On the way home after finishing the game with a score of 2-0, I checked my phone and saw that there was a KakaoTalk message from Kim Shin-ah.
[Kim Shin Ah: Haha …
[Kim Shin-ah: Oh, so funny]
[Kim Shin-ah: She’s really dancing Gangnam Style wearing only panties ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
I followed the link to check and it was true. Arteta was dancing in just his underwear in an empty Arsenal stadium.
It was quite embarrassing to be dancing from the front, so there was a video of Arteta dancing and sneaking away to the side of the camera.
A 23-second video.
I laughed and shared the video on Instagram, including a thumbs up emoticon.
* * *
Giovanni De Luca was having a busy day, checking his schedule.
Training program. Match schedule. Official business that takes place within the club outside of matches or training.
Giovanni, who was sipping coffee while checking the Premier League results, smiled happily when he saw them.
1st place. Manchester United. 5 wins, 2 draws in 7 matches. 17 points.
2nd place. Manchester City. 5 wins, 2 draws in 7 matches. 17 points.
3rd place. Liverpool. 5 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss in 7 matches. 16 points.
It was a report card that I checked every day, and if I were to exaggerate, I would look at it at least once every five minutes a day.
Just looking at it relieves stress and makes me laugh.
“I didn’t think our performance would improve this much just by recruiting one player. Haha… .”
In modern football, it is very difficult for one player to make a significant difference to the performance, but when you are paid a weekly wage of over 1 billion won, it is a difficult task that must be done.
And Kim was doing well enough, and Giovanni was quite pleased with that.
dripping-
A light knock.
Giovanni, who thought it was the head coach, immediately shouted, “Come in!” And the person who peeked in was an unexpected person.
“Philip?”
“How have you been?”
It was Philip Collins.
Manchester United’s second-team manager.
I haven’t seen him often since he came here, but I personally think that Philip Collins is a very introverted person who doesn’t fit the position of director.
“What are you doing here?”
“Yes, I came here in person today to submit a written report.”
“Oh… I see. Please sit down.”
Giovanni and Philip had an awkward relationship. It was natural, since they didn’t see each other often and didn’t know exactly what kind of person he was.
Giovanni received the report printed out on paper from Philip Collins and flipped through it. It was a rough report on the second-team players.
When I checked, they were all just average data. There wasn’t any data that the first-team coach would care about.
Giovanni, who had been flipping through the pages, stopped at one page. Kim’s soulmate, Another Kim.
The data was unusual.
In fact, I was so busy the past few weeks that I didn’t even have time to check the 2nd Army data. I only marked the 2nd Army data I received via email as ‘received’ and didn’t read it properly… .
“I guess this guy is the key to this report?”
Philip Collins also nodded after checking the paper Giovanni was looking at.
“Yes, that’s right. Another Kim who came to Man U with Kim. After seeing him for the last five games, I concluded that he was too good a player to play in the reserve league.”
13 goals and 6 assists in 5 games.
The attack points are surprisingly high, and other GPS-confirmed activity levels and various indicators and data are also abnormally high.
“You play like a midfielder, but you score a lot of attacking points. It’s not easy to play with such dedication in the second division….”
“That’s right. His winning mentality and professionalism are beyond the level of an ordinary player. I don’t know how to express this, but… … Well, he plays every game like he’s dying. It’s like he’s playing in a World Cup match.”
“Is that so?”
“yes.”
Just looking at the data, it seemed that way.
I checked the data of other players to see if everyone in the 2nd team was playing like this, but that couldn’t be the case. It was just Another Kim doing Another.
“Hmm… .”
Giovanni lost in thought.
Philip, who had been examining Giovanni, spoke in a clear voice.
“Please call him up to the first team, coach. He’s a player who has no meaning in staying in the second team.”
“… … .”
Giovanni was thinking about something else in the meantime. To be exact, he was thinking about the moment when he met and talked with the captain.
Richard Johnson smiled gently at his grumbling self, and told Kim that if she was so insistent, there had to be something, and that he should trust his judgment.
In fact, he was a player who didn’t really have much of a financial impact on a huge club like Manchester United.
So I just put him in the second team and didn’t pay any attention to him… … .
“Director?”
“Oh, yes. It’s a call-up.”
Does Kim have a keen eye for detail? Or is this data simply due to the low level of the reserve league?
Giovanni thought about it for a moment, then nodded coolly.
“We will do so. Forward Kim will be called up to the first team starting today.”
“Good decision.”
After talking to Philip about various things about the second team, Giovanni sent him out and became lost in thought once more.
“I called him up, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a place for him….”
It didn’t matter. It would be nice if there was a sub.
And if they underperformed, they could just send them out on loan as soon as the winter transfer market opened.
“hmm.”
And then suddenly I remember the story of goalkeeper Kim. I saw it in the article. How he became a regular player in Hannover.
Didn’t he say that he went in as the sub’s sub’s sub, got a chance, and made good use of that opportunity to become the starting player?
I remember reading the article with great admiration, thinking that such competition for a starting spot in the special position of goalkeeper must have been very difficult.
“Let’s see… .”
Giovanni checked the schedule again to see if there was a match where he could use this forward Kim.
Giovanni, who was quickly going through his schedule, stopped in one place.
[EFL Cup Round of 32, September 28th, Man Utd vs Newcastle UTD]
There is one.
EFL Cup.
Manchester United have a league schedule, but they also have to compete in international competitions, the EFL, and even the FA Cup, so managing the physical strength of their key players is of the utmost importance.
So for the EFL Cup match against Newcastle, we were going to send Hoilun as a striker… … .
“Hmm. Why don’t you send Kim while you’re at it?”
They were planning to send off a lot of non-regular players anyway. I don’t know what kind of player lineup Newcastle will have, but Manchester United is a club that has no attachment to the EFL Cup.
If I fell, my heart would hurt, but it was just that bad. Just heartbreaking.
“hmm.”
Giovanni, who had been thinking about it for a while, decided to call up Kim to the first team and watch him train before making a decision.
Because there is still time until that game.
* * *
Ahead of the match against Leeds United in round 8, there were changes to the team line-up.
Kim Jun-young, who had been stuck in the second team, was promoted to the first team in recognition of his performance.
“Sunshine~~”
And Kim Jun-young, who clings to me like a little child. It seems like he missed Koreans a lot while living alone in England.
Junyoung, loneliness is a daily occurrence in a foreign land… .
“You came quickly?”
It was faster than I thought. It’s been a little over a month since I enlisted? And in that time, I’ve been promoted to the first team. Is this guy really destined to be a good guy?
Giovanni introduced Kim Jun-young to the entire team.
He’s from Korea, he went to the same school as me, and things like that. Other than that, Kim Jun-young introduced himself.
Of course, my speaking skills are still weak, so my pronunciation is inaccurate, my speech is very slow, and I sometimes hesitate because I am nervous.
But we waited patiently and welcomed Kim Jun-young with applause.
“Welcome another Kim!”
“Welcome to the best club in the world!”
In fact, I had enlisted over a month ago, but the players didn’t know me at all and treated me like I was there for the first time.
After the welcoming speeches, just before the training, I approached Kim Jun-young, who was in an encouraging mood, and spoke to him in Korean.
“Hey. From now on, the coaches will be watching everything you do. Do your best. Work hard.”
“Ah! Yes! I will definitely survive, Sunshine!”
* * *
And I watched Kim Jun-young.
I was already familiar with Manchester United’s training program, so I had plenty of time to do that.
After watching Kim Jun-young closely, I came to the conclusion.
“It’ll take some time to adjust to the team.”
On the surface, Kim Jun-young looks fine. He’s training hard, but it looks obvious to me.
Unlike other players, Kim Jun-young did not have much leeway in his training.
He seemed so busy doing his own thing that he didn’t care about anything else. The coaches probably thought the same thing.
If he naturally blends in with the team, that stiff attitude will disappear and he will become more relaxed like the other players.
I don’t know when that will come though.
And the next game is the Rose Derby.
Like the North West Derby, it is a rivalry match, but that too is an old story.
Leeds are in the relegation zone and Man U are in the title zone, so how can they be rivals?
If Man U doesn’t go into overdrive again and do anything weird, they’ll be guaranteed 3 points in the next match.
“Kim! Let’s go!”
I spent my time helping Bayer with his shooting drills. Bayer tried countless times to get through my goal, but Bayer’s shots never got through my goal… .
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