Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 18

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“What did you have for breakfast?”

“Just the usual, my mom made me a meal.”

“Oh, really? Is your mother a good cook?”

May 15, 2027.

The locker room of West Ham United’s home stadium, London Stadium.

Today is the day of the league’s 35th round match against Norwich City, and also Johan’s Premier League debut.

“Oh, really? I’ve had Korean food a few times.”

Team Gordon, the captain sitting next to Johan, had been talking to Johan non-stop since a while ago.

Just pointless chatter.

Like how there’s a resident cat at the stadium who’s a senior so you have to go and greet him – of course, I didn’t fall for it – or how you have to dance in the middle of the locker room as a debut ritual – didn’t even pretend to listen – Gordon was just throwing out nonsense without a break.

Why is he bothering me so much?

His first impression was that he was taciturn and scary, but who knew he’d be such a talkative type.

Is this why some players said it’s better to keep a distance from the captain?

Well, I guess he’s trying to ease the tension as a captain for my debut.

Johan mostly closed his ears and just gave perfunctory responses.

That was Johan’s specialty anyway.

Letting things go in one ear and out the other.

A skill honed thanks to his dad’s nagging.

“Hey, hold on. When is your birthday?”

“My birthday?”

After chattering away for a while, Gordon suddenly asks about my birthday this time.

When Johan answers that it’s April 26th,

“Wait a minute.”

Gordon takes out his phone and starts searching for something.

Then Gordon snaps his fingers.

“Hey! Look at this. The youngest Premier League debut in history was Harvey Elliott of Fulham, who was 16 years and 30 days old at the time of his debut.”

“…So?”

“What do you mean, ‘so’? Your birthday is April 26th. That makes you 16 years and 19 days old today. You’re the youngest debut in PL history! Today is the day you set a record!”

Wahaha, Gordon bursts into laughter and pounds Johan’s back.

Johan frowned at Gordon’s spicy hand [a playful term for a strong or rough pat].

The youngest debut record, huh.

Is that even considered a record?

Like, minor labor exploitation or something?

“Hey. Besides, the youngest scoring record is much more lenient. James Vaughan, 16 years and 271 days. If you score within 250 days, you’ll break it.”

The youngest scoring record, huh.

I’m not interested in the debut record, but that’s a bit interesting.

Because today is the day I have to score a goal.

Well, I guess it’ll be broken.

Today.

“What? You’re going to break it today? I knew you were fearless, but haha! That’s the kind of confidence you need. Good, good.”

Gordon laughs loudly when I say that record will be broken today.

He seems to think it’s just the ambition of a rookie.

“Well, you scored two goals right away in the practice game, so you have the right to be confident. But let me tell you, kid. You’ll know once you go out there. Practice and the real game are completely different. After 45 minutes, you’ll think differently when you come back.”

“…I don’t think I will.”

“Haha! We’ll see about that. Let’s go. It’s almost time to go to war.”

Checking the time, the game is approaching.

I was going to relax a bit before going out,

But I couldn’t because of Gordon.

But thanks to him, I don’t feel any tension at all.

“Let’s go, let’s go!”

“Let’s go! Let’s kill them all!”

The players shout as if they’re going to war and leave the locker room one by one.

Johan tilts his head once at those players.

Johan headed to the stadium last.

ㆍㆍㆍ

“This is a really surreal sight.”

In a corner of the stands.

Johan’s family is in a good spot where they can see the field at a glance.

“Are you filming well?”

“Yes. It’s almost time for him to come out… Ah, he’s coming out! He’s coming out, Dad!”

To capture the historic moment for the family.

Lohan was holding his phone to capture the moment Johan appeared on the pitch in the West Ham uniform, and Ban Seok-ho had his hands clasped together.

And,

Johan appears.

“Wow…”

“Is this… a dream or reality…”

Indeed,

“Surreal” was the perfect word.

It was an unimaginable thing.

Until just a few weeks ago.

Johan is now walking onto the field alongside the West Ham players.

Lohan chuckled at the sight, unable to believe it even as he watched.

“Isn’t it unbelievable? Johan… Dad…? Are you crying, Dad?”

“Keuh-heut. Ah, no!”

“…”

Ban Seok-ho was actually shedding tears.

He seemed overwhelmed with emotion.

It was inevitable.

One of his lifelong wishes was now a reality before his eyes.

To see his beloved son playing in the uniform of his beloved team, West Ham.

That was Ban Seok-ho’s only wish since retiring as a player.

But it was a wish he thought would be difficult to achieve.

Until just a month ago.

Lohan was working hard but not getting anywhere,

Johan wouldn’t even look at a soccer ball.

It was his only wish, but it seemed unlikely to come true.

But,

His wish came true like this overnight.

It was no wonder that Ban Seok-ho, who was known as a tough guy in the Premier League, was blushing like a teenage fan.

“What are you crying about like a fool.”

In this situation,

Only Johan’s mother, Kim Ra-hee, remained calm.

“Stop it!”

“Keup…!”

Kim Ra-hee married into a soccer family, but ironically, Kim Ra-hee knew nothing about soccer.

In fact, when she first met Ban Seok-ho, Kim Ra-hee didn’t even know that Ban Seok-ho was a soccer player.

Ban Seok-ho, who was popular as a soccer star wherever he went, felt a great attraction to Kim Ra-hee, who treated him as a man, not a star, and married her.

Well,

Looking back now, it’s a secret that she regrets not holding back a little back then.

“Eldest son.”

“Yes?”

“Johan will score about 3 goals today, right?”

“Hey, Mom. 3 goals is too much. It’s his debut today.”

“What are you talking about? Johan is a great soccer player. Then he should score 3 goals, right?”

“Mom. In soccer, scoring just 1 goal is considered good. You really don’t know anything about soccer.”

“Oh, Ban Lohan. Are you talking back? Then do you want to bet with your mom?”

“What kind of bet?”

“I’ll bet 10 pounds that our second son will score 3 goals. You guys bet too.”

Even though a mother thinks her son is the best,

It’s his debut today, and a sixteen-year-old kid will score 3 goals.

At Kim Ra-hee’s unfounded confidence,

Ban Seok-ho and Lohan look at each other and giggle.

“Okay. Then, I’ll bet 10 pounds on him scoring 1 goal.”

“I’ll bet 5 pounds on 1 goal too.”

“You two are teaming up. Okay. Get your money ready.”

“You should get the money ready.”

“Hehe.”

A bet between someone who knows soccer well and someone who doesn’t.

But, who is the one who knows soccer well and who is the one who doesn’t.

We’ll have to wait until the game is over to find out.

*

“Beeeep-!”

With the cheers of the crowd and the whistle, Johan’s Premier League debut began.

‘It’s definitely different.’

Johan looks around once.

It wasn’t Johan’s first time playing in a real game.

He had played in a game against Chelsea in the youth league.

But,

The atmosphere was completely different from that time.

The huge stadium, the many spectators filling that huge stadium, and even the heat emanating from those spectators.

I can understand what Gordon said a little bit.

The Premier League was definitely a completely different dimension from the grass I had stepped on so far.

So,

Even Johan would need time to adjust to this atmosphere at the beginning of the game.

But,

There was a guy who was interfering with that time from the start.

“Hiyah. Even though it’s the end of the season. Isn’t this too much? To put out a youth kid that no one’s ever heard of.”

I heard someone talking to himself right next to me.

When I turned my head,

A Norwich player with the number 4 on his back was muttering to himself while looking elsewhere.

“Geez, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. To have me face a kid like this, I feel sorry for even getting paid, I’m sorry.”

He was muttering to himself, but it was obvious that he wanted me to hear it.

The guy kept following Johan around and started talking loudly.

“I hope there’s no legal problem with this? This is too much for anyone to see.”

The intention was obvious.

Trash talk.

Johan was a sixteen-year-old kid making his debut today.

That meant he was in a position where he was naturally psychologically unstable.

Norwich number 4 knew that well.

It was easy to remember the day he made his debut.

That day, he was just busy chasing the ball.

His mentality collapsed at the slightest boo from the crowd, and he couldn’t maintain his composure at all.

And, like most players making their debut, Norwich’s number 4 didn’t perform at his best at all.

Even though he was 22 years old at the time.

Even he, who was 22 years old and making his debut, was out of his mind,

What about a 16-year-old kid?

He would be shaken by even a single passing word.

He knew that,

So he wanted to torment Johan’s mentality from the start.

“Oh my, why do I keep smelling school lunch on the field? This isn’t a school playground.”

You might feel like it’s too much.

To use such a dirty trick on a sixteen-year-old player who is just making his debut, when he should be facing him fairly.

But,

That’s what soccer is.

A war that lasts 90 minutes, where only the winner and loser remain.

A war where you have to do anything to beat your opponent.

Even if the opponent is sixteen years old.

So, no one would be able to point fingers at him unless he was fouling.

“Can’t even take his first steps yet. Well, he needs to grow a little more to run.”

Still, it’s a bit too much.

Does he play soccer with his mouth?

Norwich number 4 keeps talking.

In fact,

The fact that he can keep talking means that he has that much leeway.

As he said that he can’t even take his first steps, Johan wasn’t running.

He was just walking near the box [the penalty area].

He was just strolling around slowly like someone who came out for a walk.

So,

The guy marking Johan had no choice but to be relaxed.

‘He’s all stiff. I don’t have any personal feelings, so don’t hate me too much.’

Norwich number 4 smirks as he looks at Johan’s blank back.

He seemed to think that his trash talk was working properly.

Because the attacker was so stiff that he couldn’t even think about running.

Seeing that, he even thought that he might have been too harsh on the kid.

But, well, there’s nothing he can do.

‘You grow up learning everything. Kid.’

Because that’s how this world works, you have to do things like this to win.

He has no intention of stopping the trash talk.

Far from stopping, he was thinking of landing a fatal blow,

“Haaaam!”

He stretched out and yawned.

The greatest insult you can give to the attacker you’re marking.

Boring.

Expressing it with his whole body,

That was the moment.

“Hey, kid!”

Paah-!

8 minutes into the first half.

The first pass came to Johan.

After coach Schmidt decided to send Johan out for the Norwich game, the West Ham players, who had been working with Johan for about two days.

Those players already knew.

That it was enough to just give Johan a normal pass under his feet.

So,

This pass was the same.

It was rolling slowly towards Johan, who was standing still.

So,

Norwich number 4, who had a motor in his mouth, also moved slowly, thinking that he should just stick to him appropriately.

But,

The next moment.

“…Huh?”

Johan disappeared from his sight.

‘What?’

He probably never dreamed that.

That his mumbling, which he had been chattering about since the start of the game, was being completely ignored.

That Johan’s specialty was to listen with one ear and let it out with the other.

Johan had already controlled the ball with a backheel, passed through number 4 as it was, and was running towards the box.

Tata-tat-!

Soccer is war, and war is about doing anything to win against your opponent.

Even if the opponent is a sixteen-year-old, no one will point fingers at you for doing anything to win.

But,

We need to think about that reason in more detail.

Even if the opponent is a sixteen-year-old kid, the reason why you have to do anything to win is.

It meant that if you didn’t,

You might get stabbed by that sixteen-year-old kid.

Bbeo-eo-eo-eo-eong-!

Johan thought as he took his first shot of the game today.

‘This is for days when I don’t think I can wake up in the morning.’

In Johan’s eyes,

The ball flying towards the goal was just seen as one training exemption coupon.