Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 25



Only Krnovel

Yoon Tae-yoon was driving on the Central Inland Expressway, listening to the noise of the head of the power reinforcement office.

With an intern next to him who doesn’t know anything.

Of course, he wasn’t just any intern, he was a super intern.

“What kind of soccer tournament are you holding in the middle of nowhere? Would it be weird if you held it in a place like Seoul?”

Yoon Tae-yoon grumbled as he made his way through the rain. Im So-yeon, sitting next to him, did not respond and just stared blankly out the window.

“Soyeon-ah. What do you think? Why are they holding such a big competition in such a remote place?”

“···Well, maybe it’s because of regional balanced development.”

“If it’s for regional balanced development, why don’t we do it somewhere in Gyeonggi-do? I’ll understand if you give me a lot of money, even Dangjin. But Dang-nyeong? Sun-nyeong?”

“It’s Changnyeong.”

“Yeah, Changnyeong. The texture is also, what is it······ Ugh.”

The wipers are wiping away the pouring rain, and the car radio is filled with an announcer’s message warning drivers to be careful of accidents on rainy roads.

“By the way, Soyeon. Why are you speaking formally to your brother?”

“yes?”

“You were so easygoing when I saw you before. Why have you become so stiff?”

Lim So-yeon looked at Yoon Tae-yoon and smiled faintly.

“When I was young? I don’t think I’ve seen my older brother since middle school···.”

“So. Why haven’t I seen you since middle school?”

“You don’t often attend family gatherings.”

“Ah. I guess it was because of studying abroad.”

“It’s strange. When I was in high school, someone said that my brother had an accident in Korea···.”

“···Was it like that?”

Yoon Tae-yoon, with an embarrassed smile, continued driving in silence.

And then,

“Should we stop by the rest area soon?”

“If you don’t need to go to the bathroom, go straight to Changnyeong.”

“Okay, then.”

The car became quiet again.

It was really quiet, except for the sound of the radio and the rain hitting the car.

“But, brother.”

“Huh? Why?”

“no.”

Lim So-yeon, who was looking out the window, soon closed her eyes in the quiet car.

Yoon Tae-yoon glanced at Im So-yeon, who was starting to sleep soundly, and scratched his chin.

I had a rough idea of ​​what he was going to say, but I kept my imagination on hold.

‘By the way, this is Kim Min-woo from Suyang High School.’

This was the first time that the head of the power reinforcement room showed interest and even threw a document folder at me and told me to look for it.

If he had wanted to send me out because he thought I was an eyesore since I was just playing around, then I would understand, but why did he suddenly do that when he normally didn’t care what I did?

‘The data is certainly good.’

He has played in 16 official matches so far and has not conceded a single goal.

It was a surprisingly surprising piece of data, but Yoon Tae-yoon didn’t attach much significance to the record.

‘Even so, it’s only at the high school level. It’s a bit much to be excited about calling him the greatest genius of all time.’

The data may have come out because the defense blocked really well, or it may have come out because the players were really outstanding, but either way, it was difficult to blindly trust this kind of data from the high school level.

How many cases are there where a high school student flies high but then dies when he goes pro?

‘Still, talent is definitely talent.’

It seemed like the manager wasn’t asking me to check it for nothing.

Data is data, and even if you look at the articles on the Internet, there was a lot of praise for Kim Min-woo.

There were a few videos of the games Kim Min-woo played in, but I didn’t bother to check them out.

Wouldn’t the most certain thing be to see and verify it with your own eyes?

So I didn’t really have high expectations.

Above all, he was not sincere about this scouting act.

I had a grasp of how the ecology of this place worked, and I had some idea of ​​how to separate jade from stone, but just staying here was a punishment in itself.

Even the kid sleeping soundly next to me said that he came here because he wanted to experience social life.

‘I guess I’ll just go up and get some fresh country air.’

On the way down to Changnyeong, Yoon Tae-yoon drove along the road, happily watching his cousin Im So-yeon sleeping against the window.

Still, he’s trying hard to live his first social life, so I’ll have to leave it to him if something bothers him.

*

I arrived in Changnyeong through the rain.

The President’s Cup competition has progressed to a certain extent, and today is the day of the round of 16.

They say that the rainy season continues throughout the country in July, and here in Changnyeong, it was raining intermittently, and Yoon Tae-yoon and Im So-yeon comfortably watched Suyang High School’s round of 16 match from the covered stands.

It was after lunch when we started, and it was now 5pm. We arrived just in time for the game to start.

The match was between Suyang High School and Gyeongnam Motgol High School.

“What the hell is that high school name?”

Yoon Tae-yoon, who was smiling, looked around before watching the game. Among the people sitting in the stands, there were several scouts who had come for similar reasons as them.

The faces were clearly familiar.

“I guess it’s starting now.”

“Yeah, okay. Let’s take a look.”

As the game began, Im So-yeon took out a notebook and pen from her bosom. If she had to write something down, she might as well have done it on her phone, but she wanted to show off, so there was no need to say anything.

Unlike intern Im So-yeon, Yoon Tae-yoon did not take anything out or anything, but just watched the game with his arms folded.

The beginning of the game was a battle of exploration.

The game continued calmly with the players passing the ball horizontally and vertically.

The game went on for about 10 minutes.

There was not a single shot in the game.

And the thought comes to mind.

‘What kind of high school plays petting soccer?’

Ah. Don’t misunderstand. Here, petting means to only ‘love’ and not do ‘anything’.

The game was not very interesting, as both teams either insisted on playing possession football or were still exploring.

To put it nicely, both teams were playing cautiously, and to put it badly, they were obsessed with possession.

I watched the game like that some more.

About 20 minutes into the first half.

Yoon Tae-yoon had his eyes half-closed without realizing it. Then he woke up with a start.

Im So-yeon, next to him, was still focused with her eyes wide open as if trying to find something to gain from this boring soccer game, and Yoon Tae-yoon swallowed the saliva that had gathered at the corner of his mouth and thought.

‘This isn’t petting soccer…’

One step higher than that.

It was sleep soccer.

A game that makes you fall asleep easily when you watch it.

It was a game that allowed me to sleep very soundly if I watched it at night.

This is why Americans call soccer a girl’s sport.

“Soyeon-ah.”

“yes.”

“You still haven’t fired a single shot?”

“yes.”

“That’s amazing.”

Zero shots in 20 minutes.

And what’s even more amazing is that Lim So-yeon stayed focused for 20 minutes without blinking, even though she had zero shots.

···Why on earth are you so enthusiastic?

And this content continued throughout the first half.

Kim Min-woo’s growth potential, skills, talent, physical ability, technical ability, mentality, saving ability······ none of it could be confirmed.

When the whistle blew to signal the end of the first half, there had been only two shots on goal in the game.

One from each team, to be on good terms.

Not even a valid shot, one hit the defender’s body, and the other was a far-off kick.

Yoon Tae-yoon stretched and clapped his hands.

“Wow. What a wonderful game. If only there were games like this in the world, soccer’s popularity would double.”

At those words, a few of the surrounding spectators glanced at him. Yoon Tae-yoon, who didn’t care, looked at Im So-yeon.

“Soyeon. Do you have anything written down?”

Lim So-yeon tapped her pen on her notebook and shook her head.

“No. Nothing.”

“What? Why did you draw a seagull?”

“It’s just······there’s nothing.”

Mom?

This is a joke.

“I think it would be better to just go watch the elementary school kids play.”

As I got up from my seat and yawned, a man with a familiar face approached me.

“Suwon Seonyang, right?”

“Oh, yes. Hello. Are you from Seoul Furix?”

When Yoon Tae-yoon shook hands with the Seoul Furyx scout and greeted them, the surrounding spectators’ gazes changed.

Yoon Tae-yoon enjoyed the changed look in their eyes and chatted with Furyx Scout for a while.

When we kept talking about recruiting new players and promising players when we had nothing to say, the spectators around us pretended not to hear us and just hung around to listen to our nonsense.

And after a brief half-time break, the second half begins.

Yoon Tae-yoon watched the game with his legs crossed in a comfortable position, without much expectation.

If the first half of the game continued like this, I was thinking of just playing a game on my phone.

“oh.”

However, in the second half, unlike the first half, both teams came out aggressively from the start of the game.

Now I feel like watching it again.

Finally, the long-awaited valid shots are coming out.

Gyeongnam Motgolgo’s mid-range shot!

Kim Min-woo blocks it as if he was taking a walk without any problem.

“Oh?”

They say data doesn’t lie, but how could you catch a ball flying at an angle that was more dangerous than you thought so easily?

Just when things are starting to get a little interesting, Kim Min-woo kicks the ball wide.

It was a long kick in a messy situation.

The long kick was delivered accurately to the space in front of the Suyang High School attacker, who ran forward without even contesting the opposing defenders.

“···What is this?”

The attacker from Suyang High School who instantly made the defenders turn their backs. He was in the documents of Kang Jae-wook, the head of the power reinforcement department.

Number 33. Was your name Kim Jun-young?

The player received Kim Min-woo’s goal kick and ran forward, then fired a graceful chip shot as the opposing goalkeeper ran towards him.

The chip shot flew over the opposing goalkeeper and into the goal.

“Wow!”

The spectators watching cheered, and the players also went to hug Kim Jun-young in joy.

Yoon Tae-yoon was genuinely surprised and jumped up from his seat.

“What is that kid doing?”

A seventeen year old can chip the ball so calmly?

No, but what is a goalkeeper goal kick?

It was a crazy goal kick that broke down the opponent’s defense in an instant.

No matter how chaotic the game was, how could it end up like this?

‘Oh, wait a minute.’

I looked through the file I had brought just in case again.

Yoon Tae-yoon opened the zipper of his black briefcase and looked through the documents the director had handed him. He came across a record in the data that he had laughed at.

‘Goalkeeper Kim Min-woo, 1 assist at the Geumgang Banseok competition.’

It was written that the goalkeeper had one assist in the final. Perhaps a similar situation occurred in that final.

I looked at Kim Min-woo standing on the field with eyes of disbelief. Kim Min-woo was hugging the center back of the same team.

‘At that time, it was a high school competition, so I thought even the goalkeeper got an assist···.’

When I see it with my own eyes, the situation is very different.

And only then did I realize that Kim Min-woo’s records were not excessive data created at the high school level.

After that, Gyeongnam Motgolgo increased their level of attack but failed to score a single goal.

Because Suyang High School is good at defense?

That may be true to some extent, but it wasn’t all.

The most decisive reason was goalkeeper Kim Min-woo’s ability to save. I can say for sure that he was on par with a professional.

He blocked all of the opponent’s shots as if he had predicted them in advance and as if they were nothing special.

Im So-yeon, next to me, was writing like crazy. The seagull drawing I had done in the first half was nowhere to be seen.

I don’t know what you’re writing, but it doesn’t seem necessary.

With that level of ability, I think you should bring a contract right away.

‘wait for a sec.’

Yoon Tae-yoon hurriedly looked around. Scouts from other professional teams were also watching the game as if they were entranced.

···If I do something wrong, it will be taken away?

End

ⓒ Doctor Am

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