North Korean Striker
Part 4 | Yanbian FC | 延边足球俱乐部 | 연변축구 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
Disaster
You could hear the crunch echo throughout the mostly empty Olympic Sports Center in Nanjing. There was the crunching sound of ribs breaking, and then a moan, an awful moan that the entire stadium could hear.
I didn’t see who smashed him, but I did see who the victim was. Lee Jin-Yong, our young superstar, lay on the ground writing in pain.
It wasn’t until after the match that I heard our trainer’s diagnosis. Broken ribs. The plan was to send Lee out to a specialist for about two months to heal.
Fortunately, we have more than enough defensive midfielders to cover for him. Still, I hate to see a kid with so much talent get injured like that.
The Fan
“When is he going to be back?” Charlotte asked as soon as I stepped in the apartment.
It was a little after midnight, our plane had just landed, and I wasn’t in the mood to talk about anything. I took off my shoes, left them at the doorway, and tried to make a beeline for the bedroom.
“Answer me!” she said, half sobbing and half shouting.
I sighed. “The physios tell me it’s not as bad as it looked,” I said. “Two months, maybe. He’ll be back in no time. He’s young; he’ll heal.”
A temporary look of comfort washed over Charlotte’s face. The fire in her eyes quickly returned, however.
“How in the world could you put him out there against those savages? You should have left him on the bench and put that new Spanish kid out instead.” There was a strong accusatory tone in her voice, as if I had deliberately smashed one of her prize vases.
“You mean Borja Calvo? He just got here yesterday. And, besides, weren’t you upset with me the other day for not starting Lee?” I was too tired for this argument anyway. And why was she still fawning over this 21-year-old kid?
“I just hope he’ll be okay” was her reply, and she left me in peace.
Jiangsu
We did play a match in Nanjing, by the way. We won, too, 3-2.
We didn’t play particularly well, though we dominated throughout. Jiangsu didn’t have a shot on goal, but they did grab one after an errant cross managed to hit our young Scottish center back Aidan Quinn on the back of the foot and made its way into the net.
Wu Ping didn’t have a great match, and our defense has some clear holes. We’re bringing in a bunch of new faces to try to plug the gaps, though. I think we’ll be just fine moving forward.
Charlotte’s not the only one who ignored the match and focused on Lee Jin-Yong, by the way. Lee’s face has been all over local television and in all the local newspapers. I’ve declined several interview requests to talk about him, and I’ve had to face all sorts of sly attempts by supporters to find the name of the hospital he’s been staying at.
Yanbian FC fever is starting to catch as we continue to win. Someone told me the other day that we added 4,500 followers on social media, which I suppose is important to some. Chairman Guo is still upset that we can’t sign the likes of Haaland and Mbappe, though, and I worry that he’s going to hold it against me.
I also really hope that Lee gets better soon, by the way. We’re paying him 465,000 RMB per week, which would be a ridiculous salary at any other Chinese club. Chairman Guo has no problem with that; in fact, he wants to see us sign more good players on big wages. Still, I can’t help but be frustrated at the thought of all that money going to a guy sitting in a hospital bed.
Strife
Huang Bowen, one of our new strikers, came up to me upset the other day.
Huang is a 22 year old native of Kunming in Yunnan Province. We picked him up off of Yunnan FC for just under 4 million RMB a few weeks back. He’s already played very well for us, scoring once in his only match so far, and looks like a great signing for the future.
Well, if we can keep him happy, that is.
“Why’d you have to go do a thing like that?” he asked me with his somewhat awkward southwestern Chinese accent. I had to strain my ears a bit; they tend to drop the “h” sound in the south.
“A thing like what?” I replied cautiously.
“The new guy. Why’d you sign him?”
I almost started laughing. I didn’t know which one he was talking about. We had just had 5 new players come through in the last two days, and that doesn’t count all the young trialists.
“You’ll have to be more specific…” I said, trying to keep a diplomatic tone.
“The old one, you know, the one from across the border.”
And then I knew what the problem was.
Kim Yong-Il is his name, a name that gives you a pretty good hint at where he’s from. He’s a starter for the North Korean national team, a good striker who the scouts were excited for.
He was also a mistake, in retrospect.
I say that not only because Huang got upset. If Huang Bowen gets the game time he wants, he’ll get over it in a jiffy. And if he stays upset, we’ll just loan him out.
No — it turns out that Kim Yong-Il had a few signs of trouble that I didn’t care to check up on when I signed him. In particular, he seems somewhat frail for a 28-year-old — and there are rumors that he tends to fall apart in the big ones.
We still think he’s worth taking a chance on. And he only cost us 150,000 RMB. We’re not thinking about the long term future here. We just want some strength in depth, somebody who can help push us through this stage and into the next league.
But try explaining that to Huang Bowen.
I didn’t handle it well, I’m afraid. I just hope he doesn’t raise too much of a stink around the locker room.
Gansu
There’s not much time to worry about these trivialities, of course. We’ve got a game coming up, our 4th in 11 days.
We’re hosting Gansu Tianma. We should win. We’ve got excellent quality and good depth, even if we did lose a key piece to an injury.
We also are expecting a large crowd, which is exciting. They tell me we might have as many as 23,000 show up for this match. Maybe Chairman Guo doesn’t care much for my signings, but the fans sure seem to be interested.
As for my wife? I’m sure she’ll get by.