Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 56

< Everyone's Yohan >

“Rohan, 100,000!”

“Mom, you’re going to ruin your eyes. Stop refreshing so much.”

“100,500!”

Kim Ra-hee couldn’t put her phone down. In just three hours since opening the account, she had over 100,000 followers.

The West Ham official account tagged Yohan in a post congratulating him on opening the account, which caused the number of followers to skyrocket. Truly, he was West Ham’s most popular star.

Of course, his popularity wasn’t limited to West Ham.

Among those many followers, there were also some famous accounts.

“Why are these guys following me? It’s unsettling.”

They included the Manchester City manager, the Manchester United director, and a Liverpool legend.

The reason they were following Yohan was obvious.

They were trying to show their favor in any way they could.

Of course, the same went for regular fans.

99 percent of the followers were Yohan’s fans, and about 90 percent of those were West Ham fans, but the rest were fans of other teams.

They were commenting on every post, telling him to come to their team.

└You’re coming to Man City next season, right?

└The next Price?

└Manchester Yonited♡ [A playful misspelling of ‘United’]

└Come On Yohan Spurs!!

└Vanny, You will never walk alone! [A reference to Liverpool’s anthem]

└Come to Arsenal… though I don’t really want you to…

└If you come to Chelsea, I’ll let you off the hook for getting injured.

└Honestly, Yohan only scores goals, but his performance in the game isn’t that great… so please abandon him to our team.

└Get lost, you 10birds [Likely a derogatory term for Tottenham Hotspur fans]

Just like with the West Ham fans, Yohan’s popularity didn’t discriminate between teams.

He was practically everyone’s Yohan. Apparently, they thought that since he belonged to West Ham, he would come if their club called him.

Rohan was so angry at those comments that he even posted something himself.

He posted a photo of Yohan kissing the West Ham emblem with the caption, ‘I will always run only for West Ham’s victory!’

However, those comments could be seen as just cute.

Because there were also malicious commenters who left direct hate comments to Yohan.

So, he was worried that his mom might get hurt if she saw them, but Kim Ra-hee had a stronger mental fortitude than he thought.

Vanny_9 ＠

-This account is directly managed by Yohan’s mother.

Since the profile stated that the account was directly managed by Yohan’s mom, the West Ham fans took it upon themselves to delete all the hate comments.

If there was a hate comment, they would write dozens of nice comments underneath it to push it out of sight.

Not only that, but Kim Ra-hee’s popularity also started to rise.

└Thank you for posting so many pictures of Vanny

└Thank you for giving birth to Yohan!!

└Your future daughter-in-law is saying hello in advance♡

└Hello, Mother-in-law

└??? Mother-in-law?

└I won’t let anyone who leaves hate comments get away with it

└Wow! The mother of West Ham! West Ham-Mom!

└West Ham-Mom! West Ham-Mom! West Ham-Mom!

└What kind of person is his mother to have given birth to such a wonderful son?

└Ah… since his mother is running it, I can’t bring myself to leave a hate comment. I’ll just go back.

“These kids are cute.”

Whether it’s their bodies or their mouths, PL [Premier League] fans are famous for being rough when it comes to soccer. And that wasn’t any different for West Ham fans. In fact, they were West Ham fans who would reply to hate comments or comments trying to lure him to their team with swear words and middle finger emojis.

But when it was revealed that Yohan’s mother was running the account herself, they all became as gentle as lambs, as if they had come to a friend’s house and met their friend’s mother.

Kim Ra-hee watched that and laughed, saying the West Ham fans were cute.

“101,000!”

Kim Ra-hee, who had been staring at her phone all day, looked very happy.

It was only natural, since her son’s popularity was enormous, but it was like she had found an interesting pastime.

In fact, for parents of this age, the greatest joy is seeing their children.

While creating the account, she had rummaged through her photo album for the first time in a while, and Kim Ra-hee had smiled as she looked at the photos of Yohan that she had taken since he was young.

On the one hand, she was glad that she had taken so many pictures, and on the other hand, she thought that she should take more pictures in the future.

There have been many happy moments in her life so far, but there doesn’t seem to have been a time as happy as these days.

And it will continue to be so in the future.

“I should take a picture of that too. Yohan will have plenty of time to take pictures, but you never know about that guy. It might not be long.”

Kim Ra-hee started taking pictures of Yohan and Ban Seok-ho, who were sitting in the living room and talking.

The fans will like this picture too, right? One is a legend of the club, and the other is someone who will become a legend. When they see the two of them talking with such serious expressions, they’ll think they’re talking about some important soccer stuff.

In reality, it’s not like that at all.

“How can I allow you to have Nutella once a week when you don’t even go to training?”

“I do well even if I don’t train.”

“Things will be different if you become a pig.”

“I won’t become a pig by eating it once a week.”

“I’ll allow it if you go to training.”

“…Just you wait. After we win the championship, I’m going to have a Nutella fountain in my room.”

“If we win the championship, I don’t care if you make a Nutella swimming pool.”

“You promised.”

“I swear.”

Their mental age seems to be similar.

ㆍㆍㆍ

After the international break, West Ham welcomed Southampton to their home as their last match in November.

Southampton is a team that is currently 11th in the league this season. Given the momentum that West Ham had shown before the international break, they seemed like an easy team to beat, but that’s not necessarily the case.

In today’s PL [Premier League], where the gap in strength between teams is very small, it’s safe to say that there are no easy opponents, and above all, there was concern that the good momentum might be slightly disrupted due to the international break in between.

Moreover, Southampton had shown their giant-killing side this season, drawing with Liverpool and beating Manchester United.

West Ham was also showing enough momentum to be called a giant, so the 14th round was not one to be taken lightly.

Above all, the most important thing might have been that Yohan’s assist doubling event was over.

Coach Schmidt, judging that he couldn’t handle it, ended the event after the Chelsea game.

In fact, maybe it was because of that, but the game didn’t go smoothly.

Southampton is seizing the initiative in the early stages. Luka Hernandez on the right looks to be in great form again today.

Hernandez, who doesn’t discriminate between left and right, is on the right today with the intention of targeting West Ham’s Petrović on the left. Petrović has often shown weakness in one-on-one situations against fast players.

Southampton relentlessly targeted West Ham’s left side.

Petrović is good at crosses, but he has often shown instability in defensive situations, especially in one-on-one situations with fast and direct dribblers.

Southampton had a speedy dribbler named Luka Hernandez, and Southampton continued to match them up, creating a series of threatening scenes.

Even Southampton scored the first goal.

Hernandez! Cuts it back! Barton!

Goooal-! Aaron Barton easily finishes off the ball that Hernandez perfectly laid off! Southampton takes the lead first!

Are they making things happen again today? Southampton! You can see that they have prepared perfectly for today’s game! They seem to have done a lot of analysis!

In the 15th minute of the first half, Hernandez once again got past Petrović and completely broke down the right flank, then assisted Aaron Barton’s goal with an accurate cutback.

Certainly, as the commentator said, Southampton seemed to have come out with their knives sharpened for today’s game.

This season’s West Ham was in a completely different situation than last season’s West Ham.

1st in the league until November.

This means that they are the subject of intense analysis by the teams below them.

Of course, they don’t neglect analysis when preparing for a game against any team, but the weight they carry when facing 10th in the league and 1st in the league is bound to be different.

In particular, West Ham’s current momentum was so great that it was difficult to dismiss them as just being in 1st place.

It was only natural that Southampton had prepared a lot for this game, and in the early stages of the game. It seemed to be working exactly as planned.

It’s early, but if you don’t make a change, you’ll continue to be eaten alive.

If you continue to match up Petrović and Hernandez, you’ll see the same scenes as just now throughout the game. Then, it’s not strange that it leads to a lot of goals.

One goal is okay, but the problem was that it wasn’t a loss of points that happened by accident.

It wasn’t just a clumsy or unavoidable wonder goal, etc., a loss of points due to bad luck.

The loss of points was due to the opponent thoroughly exploiting their weaknesses, so the aftermath was even more problematic.

Southampton will continue to target that spot and dig into it.

What are you going to do, Coach Schmidt?

For now, he seems to be watching as is.

However, Coach Schmidt did not give any special instructions. In fact, there were no more instructions he could give during the game.

For Coach Schmidt, the starting eleven means the best eleven.

No matter what situation arises, this situation is already the best, and the players just have to do their best in their respective roles and situations.

Since that was the design from the beginning, Coach Schmidt did not show any significant movement even though Southampton was taking the early atmosphere.

In fact, this part is probably the most criticized aspect of Coach Schmidt.

It’s good that he has a clear Plan A, but the gap between the starters and non-starters is too big because it’s so solid.

He is conservative about player substitutions.

Because he is the type to meticulously do everything from the blueprint to the coloring, he doesn’t like to change the picture he has drawn.

This is a tendency that can be considered a strength if the results are good, but it is a tendency that can be considered a fatal flaw if the results are not good.

But, there was one important thing.

That was that West Ham’s current results were very good.

Until now, West Ham had played according to Coach Schmidt’s plan, and had never deviated from it.

Therefore, there was no need to seek change. The result of doing so was 1st place.

And, the secret to that 1st place solved the problem again today.

It was Yohan’s goals that turned the tide of the game, which were scored in the 33rd and 35th minutes of the first half, two minutes apart.

Coach Schmidt’s answer to the solution to the difficult flow was simply Yohan.

Vanny! A dazzling goal! He puts Petrović’s cross in with a sensational volley!

Oh my gosh, Vanny again! He scores two goals in less than 3 minutes! Vanny takes the lead from Southampton and hands it over to West Ham!

He really looks like an assassin. Even 30 minutes after kickoff, I had forgotten that Yohan was even playing. But, he appears when the opponent is off guard and inflicts a fatal wound!

The two goals scored in 2 minutes were enough to completely change the flow of the game.

After that, West Ham gained momentum and took the lead, and Southampton, who had their momentum reversed in an instant, lost their pace, showing a disoriented appearance.

In fact, as the commentator said, the only two scenes where Yohan was properly captured by the camera were when he entered the ground and when he scored a goal.

But that was enough.

Yohan’s goal turned the game around for West Ham, and in the end, they won the game against Southampton, which had looked 불안해 [unstable] at the beginning.

Also, thanks to this, West Ham was able to finish November in 1st place in the league.

In the end, this Southampton game was a game that properly showed that strikers can earn points for the team with just one goal.

Also, as they entered the full-fledged winter.

Interest in Yohan, who can earn points with his individual ability alone, was only getting hotter.

*

“There are only a very few, but there are definitely opinions. It’s criticism of Yohan’s playing style.”

After the Southampton game, at the interview venue.

A reporter cautiously asks a question.

“The criticism is that his play is too selfish and that he is draining the stamina of his teammates. I would like to ask you about your thoughts on this.”

It was such an inappropriate question to ask a player who had received MOM [Man of the Match award] after winning the game that it made you wonder if the reporter had some kind of bad relationship with West Ham.

But in fact, Yohan had been receiving a lot of these questions lately.

It is natural for people’s jealousy to follow when popularity increases.

“I don’t know.”

Yohan usually responded to these questions with indifferent monosyllables.

Because they were questions that were too annoying to answer with effort.

However, the shorter Yohan’s answer, the longer the question becomes.

“There is also this kind of opinion. It is true that he has been scoring goals at an unbelievable pace so far, but it is impossible to guarantee that this pace will continue forever, and it is natural to think that it will drop someday, and when that moment comes, unlike players with many advantages, Yohan, who is only specialized in scoring goals, can fall into a deep slump. What do you think about this opinion?”

The question that was difficult to even listen to was directed at Yohan, and Yohan scratched his chin for a moment.

A few days ago, his dad had told him something like that.

He told him that there is a Korean proverb that says you can repay a debt of a thousand nyang [an old Korean currency unit] with one word. He told him that he shouldn’t just do interviews carelessly because they’re annoying.

His dad said that since people’s hearts want to know more the more you hide, you should honestly say what you think as it is so that annoying things don’t happen.

Certainly, his dad’s words didn’t seem to be wrong.

When he speaks carelessly because he’s annoyed, they ask him more annoyingly.

Therefore, starting with this question, Yohan decided to say what he thought as it was, even if it was a bit annoying.

So, that’s how he answered.

“I’ve been good at scoring goals since I was born. So I’ll be good at it until I die. Besides, I’m planning to retire when I’m at my best, so it’s a waste of energy to worry about that.”

“…Ah.”

With that answer, there were no more annoying questions.

It was to the point where he thought, ‘This really works?’

And, starting with that answer, Yohan’s popularity began to rise like crazy even outside the ground.