CS 06

Chapter 6

Something More Important Than Money (5)

Antonio, the Real Madrid scout—in other words, Tony—had been a rather untalented striker.

He had spent his entire career in the lower leagues and had never experienced La Liga.

Of course, some people might say that even that was enough to qualify as talent, but the important thing was that Antonio himself didn’t think so.

So, after admitting that he had no future as a player, he retired at the age of twenty-eight. He then began studying, earned all sorts of certifications, and at the age of thirty, he got a job as a scout for Real Madrid and began his second life in football.

For someone who had failed to succeed as a player and chosen the path of scouting instead, he had one dream.

To be the first person to discover a striker who would go down in football history.

Someone who could play football!

Someone handsome!

Someone overflowing with star quality!

He wanted to discover players like that and inject young blood into Real Madrid! He would raise the declining average looks of the football world by filling the squad with young, handsome players instead of ugly Black players who were good at football!

Just like back when they had Beckham, Ronaldo, and Kaká.

Like the Galácticos of the past.

Wasn’t it thrilling just to imagine?

—Tony, that’s racist, you crazy bastard.

Of course, when he said that to one of his fellow scouts, he got thoroughly cursed out.

But Antonio didn’t give up. After all, what mattered was having an unbreakable spirit.

Just as digging continuously would eventually reveal a well, if he kept searching, he believed he would eventually find the player he’d always dreamed of.

That was what the young and ambitious Antonio had thought when he had just turned thirty and joined Real Madrid as a scout.

“Phew…”

On the other hand, thirty-seven-year-old Antonio, who smoked furiously whenever he found even the slightest opportunity while in Korea, had somewhat different thoughts.

People couldn’t be perfect.

Everyone had their flaws. Naturally, football players were no exception.

If someone was good at football, they were ugly. If someone was reasonably handsome, they couldn’t play football. And if some bastard happened to be decent at both, then when you tried to lure him over, you found out he’d already signed with Barcelona.

Let’s set aside the fact that the last one was the greatest flaw of all for a Real Madrid scout.

If you looked at things objectively, it was impossible to deny that Barcelona’s youth system, La Masia, was slightly—just barely—superior to Madrid’s youth system.

The reason was simple.

Real Madrid wanted to buy the best players and achieve guaranteed results, while Barcelona wanted to develop the best players in the world and achieve results even if there was no guarantee of success.

Their goals were fundamentally different from the outset.

And that was why there were hardly any youth graduates among Real Madrid’s first-team players.

Even if they brought in promising prospects and developed them, those players couldn’t displace the star-studded members of Real Madrid’s first team. Even if they blossomed into talented players, this simply wasn’t the team for them.

Therefore, thirty-seven-year-old Antonio no longer stubbornly held onto the idea of finding promising prospects.

Whether they were overflowing with talent or handsome, they wouldn’t be able to secure a place in Real Madrid’s first team anyway.

So he would never get his hopes up about another prospect.

Never again…

“Kang Do-in!”

“You crazy bastard!”

“That’s already five goals!”

……

……Fine. He’d believe in this one for the last time.

Kang Do-in, who had played as a right winger in the first quarter and recorded two goals and one assist, put on an even more impressive performance as a center-forward in the second quarter.

He broke through the offside line to score, and he also found the net with a long-range shot from outside the box.

In a one-on-one situation against the opposing goalkeeper, he completely humiliated him by nutmegging him, and he even dribbled past three opposing defenders on his own to score.

Then, just before the match ended, during the chaos following a corner kick, he finally scored his fifth goal by getting a foot onto the loose second ball after it bounced around between several players.

All of this happened within twenty-five minutes.

At that point, the fact that the match stood at 5–0 wasn’t particularly important.

“Wow, you’re fucking good.”

“Your name was Kang Do-in, right? Didn’t I see you at an age-group national team before?”

“Which high school are you going to?”

“Are you on Instagram? Give me your ID.”

As soon as the second quarter ended, the players swarmed around Kang Do-in and started talking to him.

Normally, adolescent middle-school boys going through the turbulent stages of puberty weren’t quick to acknowledge others. And today, after all, was an opportunity to showcase themselves to scouts from La Liga clubs.

In other words, everyone here was a competitor.

There was no way they could casually acknowledge such a competitor.

But there were limits to everything.

Cheonoecheon.

There was always a heaven beyond heaven.

They weren’t foolish enough to stubbornly cling to their pride even when faced with someone on an overwhelmingly higher level.

To put it bluntly, when Kang Do-in had scored two goals and one assist in the first quarter, they had still refused to lower their pride, thinking, I can do that much too.

But after watching him score five goals in the second quarter, they simply classified him as being beyond their league and gave up on competing with him.

There were three La Liga clubs at the Cheonan Football Center today, after all.

Rather than pointlessly letting their pride provoke unnecessary hostility, it would be far wiser to become friendly with this abnormal monster and perhaps learn something from him.

Ah, this is fucking annoying.

The person at the center of everyone’s attention, however, was thoroughly displeased by having a bunch of snot-nosed kids who weren’t worth any money clinging to him.

Still, he was someone who understood the meaning behind the proverb that a single well-spoken word could repay a debt of a thousand nyang.

He had experienced it firsthand throughout more than twenty years as a professional, so he also knew that a single careless word could just as easily create a debt of a thousand nyang.

Therefore, instead of saying, It’s annoying, so get lost, Kang Do-in softened it to, If you don’t mind, could you ask me one at a time? and pretended to socialize with them.

Of course, it was nothing more than pretending.

He had no intention of becoming friends with kids who weren’t worth any money.

“Kang Do-in, come here for a moment.”

At that moment, the call of the age-group national team coach, who was overseeing the showcase, reached him.

Perhaps because he was from Busan, his speech carried a Gyeongsang-do accent.

Of course, the way he spoke didn’t matter.

Tired of pretending to be an ordinary fifteen-year-old middle-school student, Kang Do-in headed toward him without hesitation.

“What is it?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. Don’t misunderstand me, just listen.”

“Yes.”

“Well, you know how you’ve been scoring quite a few goals between the first and second quarters?”

“Yes.”

“But the other kids need the game to be somewhat even if they want a chance to showcase themselves to the scouts, you know?”

“Yes.”

“So, about that…”

The coach glanced discreetly toward the scouts and Korea Football Association employees outside the field. Then, covering his mouth so he wouldn’t be overheard, he whispered.

“…Would you mind sitting out the third quarter?”

It was an emergency balance patch.

It was pretty funny.

They were asking me to leave the match because the balance was off.

I never imagined I’d hear something like that from the coach of an age-group national team.

Well, it wasn’t an unreasonable request.

The second-quarter score had been 5–0, and I’d scored every single one of those goals.

The opposing defenders were players who had made names for themselves on the middle-school circuit, so their self-esteem had probably been completely crushed.

Not that I cared.

Still, if a coach went as far as to ask me that, refusing would make me look bad, so I decided to spend the third quarter on the bench.

Besides, I felt like I’d already made a strong enough impression on the scouts today.

“Do-in? Where are you going?”

“To the bathroom.”

I gave a suitable response to Park What-was-his-name when he suddenly spoke to me, then headed into the association building.

Since I wasn’t going to play in the third quarter anyway, there was no reason to stand around outside in the cold, shivering hands and feet.

I heard that the showcase for this study-abroad program would run for a total of five days, including today.

If I caught something like a cold and ruined my condition for no reason, I’d be the only one who suffered.

The first day had gone well, but that didn’t mean it was fine to ruin the remaining days.

Wouldn’t maintaining good performances all the way to the end be the best way to raise my value?

“Hola.”

Thinking that, I entered the bathroom, where a foreigner who had followed me inside greeted me.

It was a face I’d never seen before.

He wasn’t the Valencia scout.

I gave him a casual nod in return and was about to take care of business when the man continued talking to me.

Apparently, he hadn’t actually come here because he needed to use the bathroom.

“Do In Kang. Right?”

“…Yes.”

“You really can speak Spanish.”

He was grinning brightly, as though he were incredibly pleased about something.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Antonio. I’m a Real Madrid scout. Just call me Tony.”

Well, here it comes.

He’s calmer than I expected.

That was Antonio’s first impression of Kang Do-in.

It was true that Real Madrid hadn’t achieved particularly impressive results with its youth system, but it still carried the name Real Madrid.

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol.

What kind of club was Real Madrid?

It was a football club based in Madrid, the capital of Spain, and one of the representative clubs of La Liga.

It was the club that had won La Liga and the UEFA Champions League more times than any other club in the world, and it was also the most valuable football club in the world.

—What?! Real Madrid?!

—Really? Real Madrid wants me!?

—Oh my God!

Therefore, whenever they introduced themselves to a promising prospect, most young players tended to react like the above.

And yet…

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kang Do-in. You can just call me Do-in.”

Antonio felt a little disappointed as he watched the Korean boy calmly introduce himself even after learning that he was a Real Madrid scout.

This wasn’t the reaction he’d wanted…

“So, what do you want from me?”

“Ah.”

Antonio snapped out of his thoughts at the boy’s question.

He scratched the back of his head for a moment before getting to the point.

After all, this was exactly why he’d pretended not to be interested in Kang Do-in in front of the Valencia scout and kept waiting for a moment when the boy would be alone.

“I watched your performance during the first and second quarters.”

“Okay.”

“Your movement without the ball, your ball control, and your composure in front of goal were very impressive. Honestly, judging purely by your play, there wasn’t much to criticize even if I compared you to adult players.”

“Thanks for thinking highly of me. So?”

“I came here because I want to bring that talent to Madrid.”

“You want to take me there as part of the study-abroad program, right?”

“Hmm, I’ll be frank. It’s not just about the study-abroad program. I want to sign you for the Real Madrid youth team.”

Most players, especially young prospects, would accept an offer immediately at this point.

The name Real Madrid carried that much power.

In Spain, aside from Barcelona, it was practically the only club that could inspire such a reaction.

Wasn’t it one of the best clubs in the world, after all?

When a club like that wanted you, there weren’t many players who could easily turn it down.

“I appreciate you thinking highly of me.”

However, the boy standing before him was, as expected, no ordinary fifteen-year-old.

Rather than immediately giving a positive response to the Real Madrid scout’s offer, Kang Do-in began asking skeptical questions.

Quite realistic questions—or, more precisely, legal ones.

“As you know, FIFA prohibits the international transfer of players under eighteen. Even so, can you actually sign me?”

Just as the boy standing before him had said.

As long as FIFA regulations prohibited the international transfer of players under eighteen, signing an overseas prospect required careful consideration.

Barcelona itself had been punished in 2014 for violating this regulation while signing Korean prospects, and had been banned from registering players as a result.

But from Antonio’s perspective, it was also true that he didn’t want to let such an obvious rough diamond slip away.

“We’re currently looking for a way around the transfer issue with our team director.”

“Hmm.”

“The method we’re considering right now is extending the student visa you’ll receive through this study-abroad program so that you can sign a contract as soon as you turn eighteen.”

“Then I’d have to study abroad for about three years.”

“If we use the method I mentioned, yes. But that’s not the only option. If you come to our club for the study-abroad program and give us more time, I’m sure we’ll be able to find a better solution.”

They would find a way somehow.

So choose us as the club you study abroad with.

Kang Do-in looked rather unconvinced, but eventually shrugged and nodded.

“Well, there must be a way if we look for one. I have an idea of my own, too.”

“Th-then…”

“Yeah. For now, I’ll seriously consider going to Real Madrid for the study-abroad program. And, of course, signing a contract as well.”

We did it!

At last, Antonio heard a positive response from Kang Do-in and secretly celebrated.

It had been worth approaching him first while avoiding the eyes of the Valencia and Mallorca scouts.

Now all he had to do was contact Real Madrid’s football director and show him the footage of today’s practice match.

If the man had properly functioning eyes, he wouldn’t disagree with Antonio’s assessment after watching the footage.

Once he finished convincing the football director, things would be easy.

All they had to do was find some way—legal loophole or otherwise—to get around FIFA’s regulations—

“So?”

“Huh?”

“If we’re already talking about a contract, you must have some idea of how much you’d be willing to pay me per week, right?”

Antonio, who had been happily imagining their future all by himself, suddenly snapped back to reality.

The boy standing before him was grinning.

It was the smile of an adult.

“How much can Real Madrid pay?”