Summer 2014.
With one year left until Ho-young's contract with Manchester City expired, several elite clubs began to move quickly.
[Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich: "We have prepared £300 million for Ho-young."]
└Wow, that's insane. At that price, couldn't you practically buy an entire upper-mid-table club?
└Juventus was valued at a little over £400 million last year.
└That just shows how enormous Ho-young's economic value is. How much does he make in image rights alone each year? If you have him, money and trophies roll in on their own, so what is £300 million?
Clubs with deep pockets like Chelsea prepared astronomical sums to sign Ho-young.
Manchester United were the same.
[
After Ferguson retired, Manchester United had been mocked while steadily declining, and they too were launching an aggressive media campaign.
As if unwilling to fall behind, Germany was building the same sort of atmosphere.
[Bayern Munich plan to offer as much as £400 million for Ho-young...]
└Wow... how are clubs without money supposed to live?
└Isn't that too expensive? For £400 million you could buy Messi and Ronaldo.
└? When you put it that way, it doesn't even sound that expensive. I'd buy Ho-young instead.
└Me too.
Late July.
As the start of the season drew closer, Ho-young's price kept skyrocketing.
That was because he was a fully proven trophy machine, having swept every prestigious tournament, the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, the Euros, Confederations Cup, and the World Cup.
It was only natural that clubs were desperately chasing after him.
But there were also clubs that showed a somewhat less confident attitude.
[Liverpool: "We hope our feelings reach Ho-young. Even if not through money, we will do everything we can for him. We believe he will choose a good club even among the big clubs. Because Ho-young is not a player who seeks money."]
└Ho-young may not be a player who seeks money, but he probably isn't looking at Liverpool either.
└Exactly. What would he even gain by going there?
└A Europa League spot
└Hahaha
└Ah, and Steven Gerrard's endless love too.
└Hahahahahaha
[Arsenal manager Wenger: "I dearly wish to play the most beautiful football in the world with Ho-young. For his signing, we could even break the club's transfer spending record."]
└Sir... just say you want to win a trophy...
└He's saying in circles that he wants to lift a trophy once before retiring.
└But even Arsenal's record spending is only £30 million.
Clubs without much money were naturally pushed out of the race.
Unless the player strongly wanted it himself, there was no way Manchester City would accept that kind of loose change.
But the real transfer battle was actually taking place in Spain.
[
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A fierce war of nerves.
The two sides engaged in a bloody media battle with the shared goal of signing Ho-young.
Up until then, no one could predict Ho-young's future destination.
But a few days later,
a huge issue hit the world, and Ho-young's transfer rumors became almost certain.
[
Early August.
Real Madrid made a bold move by bringing Pérez back to the club.
Some socios were opposed to the decision, but even they took the position that if it was for signing Ho-young, they could naturally turn a blind eye.
Pérez's role was as advisor to president Jorge Valdano, and he was expected to advise the president on various matters.
In other words, while the title itself was not high, it was in practice a key position from which he could exert influence over the club.
That meant he intended to run in the next presidential election.
Therefore, he absolutely had to make Ho-young's signing happen.
From then on, Pérez's aggressive courtship began.
And then.
[Manchester City agree to Ho-young's transfer]
Ho-young's future was decided on August 12.
As everyone had expected, the destination was that place.
[Real Madrid sign Ho-young for a transfer fee of €500 million.]
From Ho-young's point of view, he had given Manchester City a huge gift, so he was able to leave the club with a relatively light heart.
Then his contract with Real Madrid was concluded.
The terms were even more extraordinary than the deal he had signed with Manchester City.
['Ho-young' completes a major deal with Real Madrid worth €1.3 million per week]
€1.3 million.
A weekly wage equivalent to ₩1.8 billion could have caused resistance among fans, but when it came to Ho-young's wages, it did not matter how much it was.
If they brought him in, he could produce value to match it.
What people truly cared about was not the money, but the real reason Ho-young had chosen Real Madrid over the many other clubs.
Memories, loyalty, money.
None of those could be the real reason.
Ho-young intended to reveal the reason himself in his unveiling interview.
August 15.
The press conference hall at the Santiago Bernabéu.
When a reporter's question came in, Ho-young spoke in a voice full of anticipation.
"Santiago Bernabéu. This place is why I came back."
The stadium where he had spent years.
In other words, Ho-young wanted to play football once more for Real Madrid.
The club where he had grown up.
The club that had raised him.
The countless Madridistas who had supported him nonstop until he had grown.
He wanted to feel those thrilling and happy moments all over again.
That was the only reason.
And Ho-young was able to feel that again before long.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"¡Vamos!"
"Woo!"
"¡Vamos!!"
"Woooooo!!"
August 23.
Countless supporters came to the Santiago Bernabéu to watch the La Liga opener against Córdoba CF.
The area around the stadium was packed with people passionately welcoming Ho-young's return.
"So? How does it feel to be back?"
"Pretty killer, right?"
Watching the scene from inside the bus, Ramos and Marcelo asked with proud grins.
Ho-young was already feeling it.
Excitement and elation.
How long had it been since he had felt this?
The passion of Madridismo. The spirit of Juanito. The struggle in white.
Sensations he had forgotten for some time were waking up again.
And that feeling completely exploded once he got into the stadium.
"Madrid, Madrid, Madrid~"
"¡Hala Madrid!"
"Y nada más!"
"Y nada más!"
"¡Hala Madrid!!"
"Wooooooooooo!!"
An explosive reaction.
The 80,000 or so Madridistas filling the stadium to the brim were going absolutely wild.
On top of that, giant flags with Ho-young's face on them and a huge shirt bearing the number 10 rippled through the stands and covered the crowd.
Córdoba CF, who had come away to the Santiago Bernabéu, had no choice but to lose motivation before the match even began.
[Córdoba CF, promoted from the second division to the first division this season, are set to go through an ordeal from the very first round.]
[Haha. They do say it's better to take the beating early anyway.]
The commentators spoke in excited voices.
They were especially worked up today.
[Ho-young, Joshua Woo's return. This is truly a historic moment! How long have we waited for this moment!]
[Since he left, Real Madrid have not won either the Champions League or even the league. But I am certain things will be different from now on. The great journey to stop Barcelona's dominance and stand tall as kings of Europe once again begins now.]
[Yes. And with that, the match has started!]
Piiik!
Real Madrid came out in a 4-3-3 formation.
Córdoba CF responded with an extremely defensive 5-4-1.
But neither tactic meant anything.
The moment the whistle blew, Ho-young's astonishing play began.
[He, he's driving forward!]
[Ah, magnificent as expected. Isn't this exactly the scene Madridistas have been waiting for with all their hearts!]
As if celebrating his return home, Ho-young beat the opposing players one by one on a solo dribble.
There was no need for adaptation.
It was football itself.
Displaying the ultimate play that could be shown with a football, he burst through to the second line in an instant.
A state of ecstasy.
At this moment, passes and build-up were unnecessary.
When defenders came at him, he beat them with dazzling footwork, and when tackles flew in from every direction, he avoided every single obstacle with overwhelming agility and reaction speed.
And so he arrived in front of goal.
It all happened in less than five seconds from kickoff.
Then he set himself to shoot.
Two centre-backs inside the penalty area were blocking the shooting angle, but that meant nothing to Ho-young.
All he had to do was shoot.
Boom!
A cannonball strike exploded off Ho-young's right foot.
It bent at a bizarre angle, skimmed past the defenders' bodies, and was sucked straight into the net.
Rustle!
[Gooooooooal! Real Madrid shake the net in just 10 seconds!]
A display that overwhelmed everything.
President Valdano and advisor Pérez, seated in the stands, smiled in triumph.
Even a few socios who had opposed Ho-young's transfer were completely won over.
And Ho-young ran toward the supporters' section and leapt into the air.
"Hoo!"
That was the moment the stadium shook as if it might collapse.
[It's moving beyond words. Because from now on, we will keep seeing that celebration here at the Santiago Bernabéu.]
That was right.
That celebration would continue from now on.
And he would keep kicking the ball.
Because football was still the most fun thing in the world.
Because football was still his whole life.
He would not stop, and would keep running forward.
Until the day he covets every football talent in the world.
(To be continued.)