Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 8

< 007. Taming the Lazy Genius >

“Wasn’t he supposed to be an amazing talent who would surprise everyone?”

“He was… back then.”

“Oh. Is he the inconsistent type?”

Brian Maxwell, the coach of West Ham’s under-18 team, sighed as he looked at the other coaches scratching their heads.

A few days prior, during the tryouts, the coaches had raved about an incredible prospect among the successful candidates. Maxwell had arrived at the training ground with high expectations.

Sixteen years old.

Name: Johan Van.

Position: Striker.

They desperately needed a good striker, and the coaches were full of praise.

Maxwell had kept a close eye on Johan during training, but,

Good grief.

*These* coaches are too easily impressed.

“Hmm.”

Compared to the coaches’ hype, Johan’s training performance was quite disappointing.

There was no sign of the amazing talent they had described, and, more than anything, his attitude towards training was terrible.

“Faster! Move faster and more aggressively!”

Limping, limping.

Slow, slow.

He seemed utterly unmotivated.

There was no indication that he was actively engaged in training.

This was unheard of. The under-18 team was the most competitive of all the age groups.

Everyone was putting their lives on the line to earn a debut on the first team.

But on his first day of training, he was so relaxed. His first impression couldn’t have been worse.

Moreover, the most important thing Maxwell considered when evaluating a player was their work ethic.

Specifically, diligence and sincerity.

Maxwell believed that diligence was an innate quality that a coach couldn’t instill.

Skills can be improved with teaching, but you can’t change someone’s fundamental nature.

Therefore, Maxwell would wholeheartedly teach a player with a lack of skill, but he wouldn’t keep a player on the team who didn’t have the will to work hard.

“I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Why did you guys have to make such a fuss…”

“…”

The coaches, who had inadvertently misled him, scratched their heads and glanced at Maxwell.

Maxwell was a promising coach that West Ham had high hopes for, as much as the promising players on the team.

There were even rumors that he would become the first-team coach of West Ham in the near future.

Everyone knew Maxwell’s philosophy, so there were no players on the team who didn’t give their all.

As a result, Johan was even more noticeable to Maxwell, and he was in danger of being kicked out by the coach on his very first day of training.

“Okay, everyone, put on your vests! It’s mini-game time! The losing team has to run 10 laps around the training ground!”

That was, until the last training session started.

*

Johan tore at his hair in frustration.

It had been a really tough day since morning.

It was his first day of training, and he had been determined to work hard for his brother, who was excited to train together, and his dad, who told him to do his best.

However, as soon as training started, those thoughts vanished.

All he could think about was going home.

Running around the field, passing the ball back and forth countless times.

Running here, running there.

There were so many things to do.

Even when he tried to be as lazy as possible, it was still a pain.

If it weren’t for his brother, he would have run away already.

Sigh.

What glory was he trying to achieve by coming here on his own?

He didn’t even care about his brother’s and dad’s happiness; he just wanted to go back to being the troublesome youngest son, even if it meant getting nagged.

He was about to die of boredom first, so what good were his brother and dad?

Really, every minute and every second of training felt like an hour to Johan.

Still, somehow the time passed, and he thought the boring training was finally over.

“Run 10 laps if we lose?”

There was one last training session left: a 5-on-5 mini-game.

Moreover, there was a penalty for the losing team: a whopping 10 laps around the field.

It was an insane penalty.

He’d rather drown himself in a puddle than run 10 laps.

‘They won’t let me off easy.’

There was no way out.

He had managed to get through the other training sessions by being lazy, but he couldn’t do that with this mini-game because of the penalty.

He had to win no matter what, to avoid the penalty.

“Everyone ready? There’s no time limit, and the first team to score three goals wins!”

Fortunately, he could end the game regardless of time if he scored three goals, so Johan thought he should score three goals as quickly as possible and go home.

‘Let’s get this over with.’

Only then did he properly tie his loose shoelaces.

*

‘Pass me the ball.’

The mini-game started.

Johan sighed as he waited for a pass that wasn’t coming his way.

The team was just passing the ball among themselves.

It was as if they had planned it.

Were they discriminating against the newbie?

He waited and waited, but the pass didn’t come.

He wanted to get out of this training ground and go home as soon as possible, but he was frustrated because the pass wasn’t coming.

‘I have no choice.’

In the end, he had to take the initiative.

Johan moved to receive a pass.

The power of the penalty was truly great.

It made the lazy Johan proactive.

“Hey!”

“Here… Oops.”

The guy who had absentmindedly passed the ball to the call next to him facepalmed.

Except for Johan, the kids had already talked among themselves before the game started.

*Let’s just pretend that black-haired newbie isn’t here and play among ourselves.*

They already knew, because they had seen him during training, how good Johan *wasn’t*.

He was just a *gokkakusha* [合格者, a person who passed], someone who had passed the tryouts.

Among the kids here, tryout passers were the lowest of the low.

They could leave the team at any time; in other words, they were just extras.

Moreover, Johan was on his first day of training, so he was basically a civilian who wasn’t even a member of the team yet.

They thought it would be easier to win the game if they just pretended he wasn’t there.

“Pass it again!”

“Or this way!”

Therefore, the kids demanded a return pass before the pass even reached Johan’s feet.

However,

“…”

Johan didn’t even pretend to listen and grabbed the ball.

Then, he started shaking his upper body as if he was going to dribble past the guy blocking him.

“Hey! You can’t get past him!”

“I said pass it again!”

The kids shouted in frustration.

There was no way he could break through.

The guy blocking Johan was the team’s starting full-back, Alan.

Alan’s one-on-one defense was among the top five in the team.

He wasn’t someone a newbie could challenge with a dribble.

But Johan didn’t seem to hear them, and he didn’t stop dribbling.

At that moment, as the kids sighed, a magical thing happened.

“Huh…?”

In the blink of an eye, an unbelievable sight unfolded.

Alan had fallen backward on his butt.

And Johan was leisurely passing by him.

The kids’ expressions were dumbfounded.

Did the newbie just get past Alan?

Alan, who even they had trouble with in one-on-ones?

And so easily?

But it was too early to be surprised.

Johan was still dribbling the ball towards the opponent’s goal.

Tatatat-!

On the surface, it was clear that Johan wasn’t the type with delicate skills.

Because he was tall and big, it was hard to imagine that he was good with his feet; he looked like the type who played soccer with his physicality.

However, the fact is that there’s no reason why someone can’t dribble just because they’re tall.

Papang-!

The second guy.

Johan got past the second guy with lightning-fast two-footed dribbling.

During the tryouts, Johan had hardly dribbled at all.

But that was just because there was no need.

It wasn’t because he couldn’t do it.

But now he had no choice.

The space itself was narrow, and he couldn’t give the pass to another guy because he was afraid the ball wouldn’t come back.

Johan continued to dribble the ball, and eventually he easily got past the third defender.

Then it was a free chance.

Ppeoeoeong-!

Chwaaaaa-!

Cheolssuck-!

A shot aimed at the corner of the goal.

The keeper didn’t even think about reaching out, and the ball shook the net as it went in.

About 7 seconds.

That goal, which Johan scored about 7 seconds after his first touch, ‘Just two more goals,’ was a crazy goal created by Johan’s laziness, who wanted to go home as soon as possible.

*

“Beep-!”

As the whistle blew,

“Ugh, it’s finally over!”

Johan cheered.

It was finally over… but in fact, the game was over in 5 minutes, because Johan had scored 3 goals in 5 minutes.

Nothing could stop Johan from going home.

“What is he…?”

“Is this even possible?”

“What *is* that guy…”

The kids who had played with Johan were all dumbfounded.

It was unbelievable.

A newbie who had participated in his first training session today, and who had come in through tryouts, had won the game by himself.

And he didn’t just win; he completely crushed his opponents, making them unable to do anything.

They couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.

“Coach, I told you, right?”

“…”

Also, it wasn’t just the kids who were dumbfounded.

Maxwell, who had been watching the mini-game, was the same.

Until just a moment ago, Maxwell had thought of Johan as a ‘hopeless case.’

But, what was it that he had just seen?

The coaches’ hype was true.

No, it wasn’t hype.

Maxwell realized that the coaches had just been telling it like it was.

‘It’s almost infuriating.’

The way Johan was crushing the kids was infuriating, because a guy on his first day of training had crushed the guys he had been teaching and training for a long time.

It meant that he had done it with pure talent alone.

In other words, he knew he had that talent, so he knew he didn’t need to work hard.

So *that’s* why he had been slacking off during training.

Thinking that way, Maxwell felt even more resentful of Johan.

But, regardless of whether he resented the guy or not, he couldn’t help but be attracted to him.

What coach wouldn’t find a player with that kind of talent attractive?

That was true even for himself, who prioritized diligence above all else.

“Ugh, I’m finally going home.”

Watching Johan pack his bags faster than ever because it was time to go home, Maxwell felt a strong desire.

He knew that he couldn’t change a person’s innate nature, but somehow, somehow, he wanted to change that guy with his own hands.