Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 46

< 045. We Need Variety >

“Peeeeeep, peeeeep, peeeeeep!”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

The moment the whistle blew, signaling the end of the game, the London Stadium erupted into a frenzy.

Usually, when you think of a festival, you imagine chasing after a cow or a pig – something substantial to sink your teeth into and tear apart to truly feel like a celebration.

Today’s sacrificial offering was Jack Price.

Price, his face contorted in anguish, hung his head low.

A wave of raucous laughter from the West Ham fans washed over him.

“Serves you right, you bastard!”

“You asked for this, you rotten bastard!”

“Looks like you don’t deserve to win this year! Woo-ha-ha!”

Security guards in fluorescent vests struggled to contain the jubilant crowd.

The fans in the stands were on the verge of spilling onto the pitch.

Fortunately for Price, the security detail managed to hold them back.

Otherwise, he might have been stripped down to his underwear and utterly humiliated on the spot.

“…”

The Manchester City players, Price among them, quickly retreated from the field, heads bowed in defeat.

Watching them go, the London Stadium reverberated with laughter that seemed to shake its very foundations.

*

After the game, Yo Han appeared for his interview, visibly drenched.

He had just endured a severe scolding from his older teammates in the locker room.

He’d been too busy soaking up their affection with drinks and ice water to fully register the dressing down.

Still, Yo Han’s expression was brighter than ever.

It was understandable.

The game had been a dramatic victory, and more importantly, he felt like he’d proven something.

That West Ham’s veteran players weren’t the kind of teammates who could be dismissed with words like ‘those guys’.

“Congratulations on your wonderful victory today!”

The interviews began.

The reporter steered the conversation toward Price.

“How did you feel when Price said those things?”

“Um… I was thinking of seeing him after the game, because the results speak for themselves.”

“You ended up winning, so the answer is clear. Still, can you give a more direct response? To Price.”

A response.

Yo Han suddenly recalled his brother’s tryout day and the sting of that memory.

That day, he witnessed his beloved family being disregarded right before his eyes.

He felt a similar sting from Price’s words, because West Ham had been dismissed by him.

So, he wanted to do something for them.

For his teammates and the fans.

Hmm. What could he do?

Ah. Gordon had taught him something.

That’s right. The chest.

A kiss!

Instead of answering with words, Yo Han kissed the West Ham emblem on his chest.

…

“Yo Han.”

“Huh?”

“Do that again.”

“…No.”

“Ah, just once!”

“I said no.”

“Ah, why! You were so good at it then!”

“I only do it when I feel like it.”

Yo Han shook his head, tired of Rohan’s constant requests to repeat the emblem kiss from the previous day.

It was understandable that it had become such a big deal.

That emblem kiss had sent the fans into a frenzy of “Ham-뽕” [Ham-pride, a feeling of intense pride and excitement for West Ham].

To be honest, the reason Jack Price’s words had stung so much was because they contained a grain of truth.

The truth always hurts the most.

But Yo Han had triumphed over Manchester City with a hat trick, and he had defended West Ham’s honor with that emblem kiss.

The West Ham fans couldn’t help but go wild for Yo Han.

“Do you know how many views your interview video has already gotten?”

“Interview video?”

“Yeah. It’s over a million. It hit a million in just one day.”

Yo Han’s interview video, uploaded to West Ham’s official account, had surpassed 1 million views in less than 24 hours. In addition, it had garnered over 50,000 likes.

That many likes were unusual.

It was proof of just how much the West Ham fans adored Yo Han.

“Should we launch your personal channel to capitalize on this? Or even an Instagram account.”

“That sounds annoying.”

“I can manage it for you. Or Mom can do it. The fans are begging you to create a channel. If you just create it, you’ll get 500,000 subscribers, easy.”

Yo Han shook his head.

He wasn’t interested in that.

Instead, he was curious about other people’s reactions.

“Did Dad see it too?”

“Dad? Of course. I watched it with him.”

“What did he say?”

Yo Han slyly inquired about Ban Seok-ho’s reaction, now that he was back home.

“Dad? Hey, don’t even mention it. The living room might have been destroyed if Mom hadn’t been there.”

“Why?”

“He was running around the whole house, jumping around like crazy. Mom scolded him a lot.”

At Rohan’s words, Yo Han smiled, picturing the scene.

To be honest, he still didn’t fully understand why his brother and dad were so obsessed with soccer, living and dying for West Ham.

However, Yo Han felt like he understood it in his head, even if he couldn’t grasp it in his heart.

That soccer was something someone could love that much, even if it wasn’t him.

Hmm.

Thinking about it that way, Yo Han felt like he had changed a little.

Looking back on yesterday’s game, he was dumbfounded by his own actions.

Him running and throwing himself towards the ball to keep it in play.

It was unimaginable.

But yesterday, he had run with only the thought of saving the ball. No other thoughts had entered his mind.

At that moment, he hadn’t even considered that he was too lazy to run.

‘I was crazy.’

They say people die if they change suddenly.

He wondered if he was going to die like this.

Um.

If he died, he could lie in a coffin forever, doing nothing, so maybe it would be better?

Well, still.

When he woke up this morning, he was happier about only having to work twice this week than about yesterday’s victory.

It looked like it wasn’t time to die yet.

Well, he had a hearty breakfast and lunch.

Should he go take a nap again now?

“Sons, eat some fruit.”

“Fruit? What is it?”

“Peach.”

“Hard or soft?”

“Soft.”

He couldn’t stand soft peaches.

He had to eat dessert and go to sleep.

“But youngest son.”

“Yes?”

“Looking at it yesterday.”

“Yes.”

“That Jenkinson guy, he won’t do.”

“…Yes?”

“He can’t cross [a pass played across the face of the goal]. Isn’t there anyone better than him?”

At her mother Kim Ra-hee’s words, Rohan and Yo Han exchanged glances.

Rohan said with a dumbfounded expression.

“Does Mom even know anything about soccer?”

“Hey, I know just by looking at it. Every time he kicked the ball, it went to a strange place.”

“No, do you even know what a cross is?”

“Are you ignoring your mom right now? That, why is it a cross to kick it in the air with a bang!”

“That’s just a lobbing pass. Did you pretend to know after hearing what Dad said yesterday?”

“Geez. No way? Your dad doesn’t know how to watch soccer better than me.”

“Actually, that’s right.”

Yo Han tilted his head at their conversation, and Rohan chuckled.

“Mom and Dad bet on housework for a week yesterday. On who would win.”

“Mom bet that our sons’ team would win, of course. But that person bet on the opposing team? Isn’t your dad too much?”

“…You were a little too much.”

“How can someone who has only played soccer all his life not know better than me?”

“What about you, hyung [older brother]?”

“Me? I naturally thought our team would win. No, I was sure.”

“Sure?”

“Yeah. Because we have good compatibility against Manchester City.”

Compatibility? Come to think of it, Coach Jamie seemed to have mentioned something like that before the game.

“Oh, Dad’s calling? Hello?”

Rohan answered a call from Ban Seok-ho.

However, Rohan’s eyes suddenly widened.

“Me? Ah, yes. I understand for now.”

“Why? What did Dad say?”

“Yes? Ah… that is, the coach wants to meet me?”

“Coach Maxwell?”

“No…”

Rohan looked at Yo Han with a bewildered expression.

“That, Coach Schmidt.”

*

“Wow, hey. You’re really amazing.”

“Ah, no. Haha…”

“I naturally thought it would be an expert who had been in the industry for a long time. What’s going on.”

“He watches soccer more diligently than I do.”

Rohan, who had rushed to the first team training ground at Ban Seok-ho’s request, couldn’t help but be bewildered.

When he heard that first team coach Schmidt wanted to see him, he briefly entertained the thought: ‘Could it be a first team call-up?’

But he quickly dismissed it as unrealistic.

Then he tried to imagine any other reason why the first team coach would summon him.

He couldn’t come up with one.

But when he arrived, the reason was completely unexpected.

The columns he posted on Hammers.com under the ID Vannyboy.

After reading those columns and making some inquiries, Coach Schmidt had discovered that Rohan was the author.

After listening to the story, Coach Schmidt and Coach Jamie had initially assumed it was Rohan’s father, so they had called him first. But his father had clarified that it was his eldest son, not him.

And just now, Rohan had logged in to Hammers.com and verified his identity.

“So, you wrote your first column when you were sixteen?”

“Ah, yes.”

“That’s the same age as Yo Han now. There must be something special in the Ban family. How are there only geniuses like this?”

Genius…?

Rohan scratched his head at Coach Jamie’s words.

Rohan had never been called a genius in his life.

That was a word that only suited his younger brother, not him at all.

However, even Coach Schmidt, whom he had only seen on TV, was nodding his head seriously.

“Rohan’s columns, I enjoyed reading them too. To be honest, I was impressed. Because they were much more detailed and insightful than the data our power analyst sent me.”

“Ah…”

Rohan also took pride in the columns he wrote. At least when it came to West Ham, he could confidently say that he knew more deeply than anyone else.

But he had never imagined that even Coach Schmidt would have read his column.

But that wasn’t all.

“I also got a hint for the Manchester City game from Rohan’s column. I felt like I had been struck by lightning when I saw him mention the corner kick in the column.”

“…!”

Rohan’s whole body was covered in goosebumps at Coach Schmidt’s words.

Rohan had emphasized the importance of corner kicks while writing the Manchester City game preview.

And while watching the actual game, Rohan had felt that West Ham had prepared well for them, and he had thought that Coach Schmidt was definitely a good coach.

But, Coach Schmidt was saying that he had gotten a hint from his column.

So, to put it a little differently…

Wasn’t that saying that the West Ham players had played according to his analysis?

It might be an arrogant thought, but he had also contributed to winning the Manchester City game.

Rohan couldn’t help but get goosebumps all over his body.

Coach Schmidt smiled and said.

“There was also a column written about me. Thank you for looking at it favorably.”

“Ah, hahaha… I apologize if there were any rude parts.”

Rohan blushed as he recalled the column Coach Schmidt mentioned.

It was a column he had written about what kind of coach Schmidt was when Schmidt was first appointed to the team.

As he vaguely remembered it, he was relieved that he seemed to have written more positive things than negative ones.

Except for the fact that he had expressed concerns about Schmidt’s health due to his age and somewhat chubby physique.

“But, what should we do about this? I didn’t know you were our team’s academy player.”

“I know. I was going to ask you for a favor, but I didn’t know you were one of our promising youth players.”

“What… favor?”

Coach Jamie scratched his head.

“Power analyst. I feel a little bad because it sounds like I’m talking behind his back, but to be honest, to put it bluntly… it’s like we don’t have a power analyst right now.”

“Me, a power analyst…?”

“Yeah. Looking at your column, you know more than our current power analyst, so I was going to recommend you to the front office.”

“Ah…”

At Coach Jamie’s words, Rohan’s heart fluttered for a moment.

Power analyst…?

Not just for any team, but for West Ham’s first team?

“But you have to focus on your development as a player, so you won’t have time for that. Unfortunately…”

“No, I want to do it!”

Rohan answered vigorously.

He had already sensed it while training with children younger than him in the academy.

That there seemed to be a limit to his potential as a player.

But, he wanted to continue working in soccer. Especially, if it was for West Ham, he was confident that he would work hard enough to break his body.

Because he was more confident than anyone else in his work ethic.

“Really? It’s not an easy job to do while also working as a player?”

“I want to try it even if I have to give up the path of a player…”

Coach Schmidt, who examined Rohan’s serious expression, smiled and nodded.

“Then, can I ask you just one thing?”

“What is it?”

“What do you think needs to be improved for our team to maintain the same level of performance we’ve achieved so far?”

Rohan carefully considered Coach Schmidt’s question.

This seemed like a real interview.

He had to answer well.

But, there was no need to think deeply.

Because there was something he had already been pondering while watching the games.

So, Rohan answered carefully, but the answer came to him in a few seconds.

“Yo Han’s assists need to increase.”

“Assist…”

Coach Schmidt’s face lit up.