Weird Defender Joo Ji-Tae

199 – The Opening of the World Cup

199

“10 goals, 3 assists. Seon-joon has completely settled in at Marseille, and Ga-ram’s form is good too. Hye-chan is a bit sluggish, but with limited playing time, it’s okay.”

Coach Jang Ki-seok’s face was beaming with a bright smile as he went through the reports written by the coaches and analysts dispatched to the site.

After all, Jang Ki-seok was having the best days of his life.

Jang Ki-seok was a player who didn’t amount to much.

He could enter the professional stage, but that was it. Throughout his career, he wandered between the K2 League, the second division, and the K3 League, the third division, before choosing to retire early.

But he couldn’t leave the football world.

What he learned was like theft, and someone who had spent their whole life kicking a ball couldn’t leave the ground. Jang Ki-seok chose the path of a leader, taking on various roles such as management, scouting, and analysis.

There were no great expectations.

The expectations of those without talent were always betrayed, and Jang Ki-seok felt that keenly during his playing days. For him, becoming a leader was more like an unavoidable reality than a hope.

However, Coach Jang Ki-seok was different.

Luck, which had never been on his side during his playing days, started to pour in.

The first stroke of luck was meeting good people at the right time.

When Jang Ki-seok started his path as a leader, the KFA was launching a long-term project to strengthen the national team, dubbed the “Dream Project.” Jang Ki-seok was selected as one of the first-generation leaders with the help of his seniors.

The second stroke of luck was discovering that he had a talent for leadership.

The talent he had longed for as a player blossomed as a leader, particularly in terms of tactical understanding and analysis.

Of course, he was far from being compared to world-renowned tacticians.

At best, he was decent within Korea, but not yet on the level of the global stage. That was something Jang Ki-seok knew well, and his objective self-evaluation was one of his strengths.

Still, in Korea, he was considered a tactician, and as the first-generation leader of the Dream Project, he had a promising future as a youth coach, and maybe even a youth national team coach.

And then, he met his third and most crucial stroke of luck.

“What?! Is it already time?! The game must have started!”

As soon as he turned on the TV, he saw the Champions League final title and the score 0:1, with Ju Ji-tae looking back at him from the screen.

“The opening goal? Well, it’s nothing unusual for that guy.”

Somehow, it became natural to think that Ju Ji-tae, who was scoring goals, making assists, and dribbling, was magical.

Jang Ki-seok’s greatest luck was meeting Ju Ji-tae.

To be exact, it was when Jang Ki-seok became the coach of the age-group national team and Ju Ji-tae started to gain attention.

As a coach, he achieved results and became the coach of the U-20 national team, and while looking for a new face to bring freshness, he discovered Ju Ji-tae – or Cho Jae-sin.

That made Jang Ki-seok who he is today.

The coach of the Korean national team, Jang Ki-seok.

The protagonist of the most successful career in Korean football history.

And maybe, he would become a World Cup-winning coach recognized globally.

“It’s only when we meet in the final that we take off. That’s what real stars do. They shine brighter in big games.”

As the game ended with Manchester City’s win, marking the end of all schedules for the season,

“It’s my turn now. The time for the final battle has finally come.”

The World Cup schedule was about to begin.

* * *

The 37/38 season had ended, but it hadn’t really ended.

It was a contradictory statement, but it was true.

While most European leagues had closed their curtains after the Champions League final, the World Cup was just opening its doors.

As the most popular sport in the world, the World Cup, held every four years, was indeed a festival for the global community.

In Europe, where football was a part of daily life, and in Central and South America, where people lived and died for football, and in Asia, where national team matches were a craze, and in North America, where football’s popularity was skyrocketing, the World Cup was truly a festival that the world looked forward to.

Ah, of course, Oceania was included as well.

While the World Cup was a festival that the world looked forward to, there were differences in enthusiasm depending on the region.

In that sense, Korea was a unique region.

Through the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, where they reached the semifinals, the entire nation came together as one, and the World Cup was indeed a festival that brought the nation together.

The impact of the semifinal myth was so great that even after that, Korea’s professional league may not have been popular, but national team matches were enjoyed by the entire nation, and the expectation and popularity of the World Cup were at an all-time high.

However, that too began to fade away starting from 2020.

Why is a myth a myth? It’s because it’s an event that’s hard to happen, so it becomes a myth. Would Germany reaching the semifinals be called a myth? Would Brazil winning the World Cup be a myth? Of course not.

For Korea, reaching the semifinals is a myth.

For China, reaching the round of 16 would be a myth.

Naturally, Korea hadn’t reached the semifinals again since 2002. At best, they would occasionally make it to the tournament, which was a relief.

However, for those who had high expectations due to the “myth,” reaching the round of 16 was not a satisfactory achievement. The first failure brought anger, the second failure brought disappointment, and the third failure brought hopelessness.

Now, people had come to realize the reality.

Korea could no longer recreate the semifinal myth, and a pessimistic outlook dominated the people.

The World Cup was still a tournament that garnered the attention and expectation of the entire nation, but it wasn’t the same as in the 2000s or 2010s.

However, that atmosphere began to change starting from the 2030s.

At the 2034 World Cup, co-hosted by Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, Korea not only recreated the semifinal myth but achieved a historic third-place finish, flying high.

What excited people the most was that this wasn’t a one-time fluke.

The World Cup was a stage that produced stars, but the 2034 World Cup produced truly exceptional stars.

Two 19-year-old Korean players, including Jo Jae-sin, who won the Silver Boot with 19 goals, and another player who won the Bronze Boot, were among them.

Cha Bum-keun, Park Ji-sung, Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, and Lee Kang-in were all surpassed by… no, in fact, all of Korea’s football players were surpassed by this player, who was hailed as a national treasure, a center-back who defied definition, and a three-time Ballon d’Or winner and captain of the Korean national team, Joo Ji-tae.

With Joo Ji-tae’s emergence, Korean football underwent a complete transformation.

Now, Korea’s most popular professional sport was football, the most trendy sport was football, and the sport with the most investment was also football.

While all sports were struggling with youth recruitment due to the declining population, football was an exception.

Thanks to the Joo Ji-tae effect, all of Korea’s youth were flocking to football.

As a result, the expectation for this World Cup in Korea was on a different level.

Korea was boiling over with nationwide World Cup fever, unlike anything seen before.

Originally, the national team was a position that garnered the attention of the entire nation, but this World Cup was especially heavy with responsibility, burden, and pressure.

Jang Ki-seok, who had taken on that role, was—

“Hello, I’m Director Jang Ki-seok, the head coach of the national team. Now, let’s announce the national team members.”

Despite the unexpected lack of pressure, he began the World Cup preparations.

“First, let’s start with the forwards. We have Jo Jae-shin from Manchester City, Han Seung-jun from Marseille, Kim Seong-ho from Lille, and Park Hye-chan from Eibar…”

As the flashes of cameras burst continuously, Jang Ki-seok calmly announced the team members, unfazed by the commotion.

“—And finally, we have Ju Ji-tae from Manchester City.”

The World Cup had begun.

This year marked the 26th World Cup in 2038, with the United States as the host country.

After the 17th World Cup in 2002, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, nine more World Cups had taken place. Among them, six were solo-hosted, and two were co-hosted, with solo-hosting still being the dominant format. However, there was a peculiar trend: the number of co-hosted World Cups had increased over time.

In reality, since the 22nd World Cup in 2022, the 23rd World Cup in 2026 was co-hosted by Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and the 24th World Cup in 2030 was co-hosted by Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

This indicated that hosting a World Cup-sized event alone had become too burdensome for a single country.

The World Cup required an enormous budget.

After the 25th World Cup in 2034, which was solo-hosted by Saudi Arabia, it was decided that this year’s World Cup would also be solo-hosted, despite initial expectations of co-hosting.

Only a few countries could bear the burden of hosting the massive international tournament alone.

For instance, oil-rich countries in the Middle East. But since the last World Cup was held in the Middle East, they were naturally eliminated from consideration. Asia was also out of the running since the 2022 World Cup was held in Qatar, and the 2034 World Cup was held in Saudi Arabia.

Europe, too, was pushed to the back of the line since the 2030 World Cup was held in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

Therefore, the number of countries that could host the World Cup alone was extremely limited.

A country that could host a global-scale tournament alone without feeling burdened was none other than the United States.