Chapter 65 – Rising Star (1)

065

[The national team’s quarterfinal opponent is ‘Super Eagles’!!]
—Olympic men’s football group stage is over. 8 teams survived the fierce competition. South Korea’s opponent is Nigeria, the ‘Super Eagles’ of Africa.

Although the national team advanced to the quarterfinals as the top of the group by defeating the stigma of the valley generation with their skills, a difficult match is expected against Nigeria. Nigeria, a strong player in African tradition, advanced to the quarterfinals as the second place in the group, but it is not an easy opponent considering that France, who is considered a favorite for the championship, is in the same group.

In the actual game against France, Nigeria showed equal performance, but had to lose first place in the group due to the performance of Gabriel Mendy, the newcomer of France who is ranked first in the scoring rankings.

Quarterfinal opponent Nigeria stopped the national team’s run for the medal!
Ademola Lukeman, who is playing for Marseille, France, is the player to watch out for in the match against Nigeria.

What will be the secret plan to stop the ‘beast’ Ademola Lukeman with overwhelming physicality! And what kind of activity will Hong Min-joon, the crown prince of the all-time favorite, perform!

The match between Korea and Nigeria will be held on the 7th at 4pm local time.

After translating and skimming an article from a Korean sports daily newspaper on his smartphone, Gerretz turned his attention to the stadium.

Macdonald Jones Stadium where the Korean team in red uniforms and Nigeria in green uniforms are in full swing. Running toward the 20th minute of the second half, the game was flowing one-sided.

‘Five. Hong just caught the ball.’

A long pass that slips out of the rushing Nigerian players and accurately connects to a teammate on the other side.

‘Overwhelming depressurization ability to continue to the next play even under pressure from 2 or 3 players. Visibility and composure to check the other side of the field even in urgent situations. Accurate passing power that matches the speed of a colleague who is digging into the space and connects right in front.’

I’ve checked it several times, but it’s amazing nonetheless.

‘How did a player like that come out in Asia? Come to think of it, it’s Korea… In Korea, non-standard players often appeared.’

The first player that came to mind in Eric Geritz’s memory was a player called the brown bomber in Germany.
The player who became a legend of Frankfurt was an outstanding player who could not believe that he came from Korea, a barren country where there was no professional league.

After that, players who exceeded expectations such as Park Ji-sung, Son Hong-min, and Lee Kang-in appeared, and this time, as expected, another Korean seems to carry on the lineage.

The vicissitudes of football… The East Asian region is only second-rate, if not up to that point. At least Korea, which is not the J-League that scouts are keeping an eye on due to cooperation with Germany’s Bundesliga, is an area that has been neglected by the European mainstream.

Who would have known that an unknown athlete would become the best rising star of this Olympics.

Eric Gerritz smacked his lips.

‘Sorry, sorry. If I had paid a little more attention to Korea, I would have been able to catch it before the competition intensified like this.’

A jewel is a jewel to anyone who sees it.
Whether you see it or others see it, there is no one who doesn’t know that jewelry is precious. However, it is different if it is before the jewel is exposed, before the mud is buried and others recognize its value.

And that was exactly what Eric Gerritz did.
To preoccupy the jewels before they shine.

‘Mr. Hong is just a player with our Barcelona DNA.’

Barcelona scout Eric Gerritz was contacted a few days ago by Mikel Merino, a journalist from Mundo Deforcibo, who is known for pro-Barcelona media. A message saying they found a player with Barcelona’s DNA.

It is highly praised to say that the inspiration with a picky eye is a player with Barcelona DNA.
Just in time for the Olympics, Eric Gerritz, who was in Australia to take a look at the young players, didn’t ignore Mikel’s advice and visited the stadiums where Korea and Nigeria were to be held to see for himself.

“Oh! As expected, the ability to depressurize in a confined space is amazing. The ability to depressurize is already at the European top-class level.”

And the result of watching and checking the performance was surprising.
A player like this was hiding!!

Besides, Hong Min-jun was not the only one who stood out.

“Surprisingly, the other Korean players are also quite good. Let’s see… Yun… Hyuk? A friend with a difficult name. This guy has a very high soccer intelligence. This friend also has half of our Barcelona DNA. Whoa. Seol Yohan. This player is skilled. Let’s see… Well? It was a wild card. Too old Ohh! Is that player pretty good too?”

Of course, only Hong Min-joon is talented enough to play for Barcelona. At least, if a player named Yoon-hyeok is well polished, he seems to be possible until the rotation, but he did not dare to use the NON-EU card to thicken the squad.

“A German with a wide non-European quota would be a good signing.”

Above all, transfer fees for Korean players are cheap.
It is also incredibly cheap.

It’s not as much as the J-League, where transfers are almost free if you pay attention, but the transfer fee for a Korean player is incomparably cheaper than that of a European player of the same skill.

“I can’t believe it. That player is a FA.”

Hong Min-joon was an amateur who played in the college league, an amateur league!
Scouts in Korea are all brilliant players who seem to be blind, but it is still a mystery why they are amateurs.

“On the other hand… Nigeria is disappointing.”

Super Eagles ace Ademola Lukeman, who had been highly anticipated until just before the opening of the Olympics, was consistently disappointing.

They performed well in the group qualifiers, but they fell short compared to expectations, and in today’s game, they are unable to show a play that can turn the atmosphere around.

Of course, you can’t evaluate everything about a player with just one or two matches.
Scouting is basically making an evaluation by observing continuously for several months at the shortest and several years at the longest. When you play soccer, there are days when your condition is bad, and there are days when you are not feeling particularly well, so you have to take a long look at player evaluation… To Eric, Ademola Lukeman was not a very attractive player.

Even if it performed as well as expected, it would not have been noticed.
That’s right, next to a dazzling jewel, a small piece of jewel… No, would you pay attention to the pebbles on the street?

However, the problem is that Eric is not the only person drawn to the brilliance of the brightly shining jewel.

Olympic Quarterfinals.
The crowd at Macdonald Jones Stadium, which can accommodate more than 30,000 spectators, was less than half, less than 4,000, so Eric could find several football officials with shining eyes everywhere.

‘That guy is Dmitry Maslennikov. Russia is… Not a competitor No matter how coveted it is, a player will never choose Russia.’

Like a hyena that smells, it snoops, but there is no way to go to the Russian league, which was called a prison without bars in the past and now even the economy is smashed.

Eric coolly ignored the Russian team’s scouts, but there were people he could never ignore.

‘Shit. Are you from Chelsea? Bob father. What a troublesome guy. … Next to him is Kieran Scott? I also smelled the rusty arsenal.’

When Eric Gerritz, who spotted the Chelsea and Arsenal scout, frowned at him, some looked at him and frowned.

“The smelly Catalan is here too.”

Real Madrid chief youth coach Mauro Bianchessi frowned at Barcelona scout Eric Geritz.

He came all the way to Australia to check the performance of Jorge, the pride of Spain, who was certain to move to Madrid. I intuited that

“That player suits our Los Blancos uniform. Not like Asians, looks that will be eaten in Europe… Productivity is going to be amazing. It is already clear that the leader is jumping up and down with excitement. Besides that skill. At just 20 years old, if you have that kind of talent, a little bit of refinement would be enough for Madrid’s rotation.”

It has been competing with Barcelona for the Asian market for decades.
I, Hong Min-joon, could be a great move to seize hegemony in the Asian market, which we have been fighting for a long time.

“Hmm. Korean players are better than I thought. The basics are solid and the tactical understanding is excellent. However, they lack the ability to depressurize and lack creativity. It will be difficult to play in La Liga like that.”

Mauro Bianchesi, who was observing Hong Min-jun and naturally evaluating other players on the pitch, drew attention to a few players.

“At least, a player named Yoon Hyuk isn’t bad. This player is better than Ademola Lukeman.”

But just about that.
That much doesn’t deserve to wear a Los Blancos jersey.

Mauro Bianchesi, holding a cell phone, called somewhere.
It connects with the other party before the beep sounds a couple of times.

“Fly.”
—Who is this? Isn’t it Bianchesi, the chief youth trainer of our proud Los Blancos!

Familiar voice.
It was Luis Campos, who played for Real Madrid during his active career with Mauro Bianchesi, and after his retirement, went through an administrator and became the general manager.

“Hey. I found a very good player.”
— Hmm? Where were you now?
“Australia.”
-Five! Australia! Then it must be the Olympics. Didn’t you go see Jorge?
“Of course I saw Jorge. And I found a new star that flattened Jorge’s nose.”
—… New star? Gabriel Mendy… Is not new. Is it Italy’s Lorenzo? Or the Brazilian hikeumi?

Mauro Bianchesi let out a satisfied laugh at the appearance of not being able to catch at all.

“Do you know Korea?”
—You know in the south
“There was an interesting player out there.”
—Have fun. How much?

To the more serious voice, Mauro Bianchesi answered firmly.

“Boiling with Jorge. Or more”