My Scribbles

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Where I store my writings
Wip

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Contents

Draft #1 The Radio Show
A Footballer's Observation #1

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Characters

A footballer's observation

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Other

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saved

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"What a lovely day!" she exclaimed. I wish I could say the same.
She was holding a bundle of paper. I got closer and realized they were manuscripts. Manuscripts for some talk show I assumed. Her dream was to be a writer for TV after all.
"Don't you see, Alyssa?" She showed me the pages underneath. "I'm hosting my own radio show!"
I blinked. "Sorry, what?" I was not only surprised at the fact that she was preparing for a radio show, but also that she was hosting one. She was a nobody in her specialty. Why would people listen to her show? Wait, why would the producers hire her?
"I know what you're thinking." She added. I bet you do.
"The producers actually loved my idea. Although it may be quite a task for them as well, I'm not gonna lie."
How could it be a difficult task for producers who manage these shows every day?
She grinned. "I told you I was hosting my radio show. To be honest the show isn't completely mine."
Yeah, there are at least a dozen people behind the scenes.
"It's for everyone." Her eyes widened. "And I mean everyone. And you are going to help me out."

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Character Description
Liam On: Football player.
Jin On: Liam's brother.


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Club Description

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I have to be honest; I'm not that old. I'm only in my mid-twenties and I have so much more left in my life. There weren't that many memorable events as far as I know either. But there's no such thing as "old enough to write an autobiography". I've done it in primary school back in my hometown. Thing is I kept quite a distance from writing since then. So bare in mind I'm not that confident with my grammar or my usage of words. I also added reference from what I heard from other people, plus a bit of imagination I should say? Here we go.

I grew up in Seoul, South Korea. I won't mention the specific town but it was a relatively quiet place considering Seoul is the definition of "urban". My mom passed away when I was 5. So I grew up with my dad and my brother, Jin. He's 3 years older. My birth name is On Riam. Somehow it sounds English so I chose Liam as my English name when I first came to the UK.
Anyways my dad was a footballer when he was younger. But only at an amateur level; his main profession was banking. He would work as a teller on working days until evening. Then go to the field just outside our house and practice for the upcoming weekend games. My brother and I would watch him play or even join in practice. My dad taught me how to kick a ball, how to control it, and the rules to the beautiful game. That made me love football more and helped me dream to become a professional player in the future.
I joined the school football club when I was in 4th grade. My school was quite big and there were a lot of boys who loved playing football. So there were 3 clubs per grade. Three! In South Korea, football is a huge part of many lives. It's a widely recognized sport although I believe it's not as popular as baseball. The difference is, more people enjoy watching baseball games (*the KBO, Korean Baseball Championship) than football games (*the Korean league and European leagues combined). But you can't find that many baseball pitches compared to football grounds. Nearly every school or field has two nets, and you can easily find a ball in stores.
Back to my story, my PE teachers taught me football well at school. The best thing about learning it at school unlike lessons with my dad was that I could play with other kids. It was a process of applying what I learned to actual matches, observing the specific situations that can occur in a game, and acquiring elements including teamwork. I still think this experience was vital to my success as a professional.

When I trained with my dad I didn't have much knowledge about the more complicated aspects of the game. I only knew the basics and the rules. I knew what offside meant, what leads to a freekick and a penalty, how to pass or shoot (although I didn't know all the skills). I even watched the national football team play on television and was confident I could do the same. I thought I knew everything I had to know but turned out I didn't. When I first joined the school club I had to learn about formations and positions in football. As a 10-year-old this was all too confusing. In fact, the players I saw on tv were not running around as they wish. There were more than two positions in football, not just the keeper and the on-field player. So when I first joined I was confused when I was asked which position I wanted to play in. The teacher asked all the kids the same question and marked their roles next to their names on the chalkboard. I think there were about 25 in one football class. And about 15 of them chose to attack. I was asked near the end.
"Where do you want to play, Riam?" My teacher asked.
"In attack!" I eyed the board. Probably the kids preferred the attacking role for a good reason. I reckoned it was the scoring role, and I loved shooting the ball.
"Where exactly in attack?" He asked again. I stared at the board again. Under the "Attackers" sign there were a few positions. Striker, left wing, right wing, second striker. I chose one, right winger. It was purely a random choice.
Once the teacher, Mr. Park, finished his questions, he scratched his head.
"There are way too many attacking players in this class. I know a lot of you love to shoot. But the midfield and defense are just as important. Not to mention that without those two positions, there's no way you can score a goal."
"Also there's only one keeper. I will watch you kids play for the next few weeks and decide your positions. Of course, I'm not going to force all of you. But some of you must change positions, unfortunately."
I don't think I understood what he was saying back then. That was probably why I was determined to study more on the sport myself. I was ready to learn.

In our next few classes, we went through a sort of test. Mr. Park wanted to send a few of the boys to the midfield and defense. On the first day, he tested our running. I remember I wasn't fast at the time. As a winger, you definitely have to be fast. I think I had pretty good stamina compared to the others though. It took me longer to get tired when Mr. Park made us do shuttle runs. After that, the kids showed their basic dribbles through cones. I can't remember how I did in this part, to be honest. I only remember what Mr. Park told me after class.
"There is more I have to see from you, but judging from what I've seen today, I don't think you're going to fit in the wing."
I think I was scared when I heard that. Does this mean I'm not good enough? Not good enough to score? But I love scoring goals!
"Then what should I do?" I asked.
"What should you do? I'm not done assessing you yet!" He laughed. Still, I wasn't reassured. I was determined to show him I could fit in.
On the way back home, one of the kids came up to me. "Hey, I'm Sunghwan. Nice to meet you." That was when I met the friend of my life, Kim Sunghwan. He was so nice to me when we first met. I can't recall the exact dialogue but I remember one thing.
"Can you tell me some of the best players who play as a right winger?" My mind was still on what Mr. Park said. So I wanted to look up some famous right wingers as a reference on the school computer.
"Hmm...I'd say David Beckham or Joaquin, Figo?" Clearly he knew a lot about footballers because I had no idea who they were. Except for Joaquin, and I only remembered him because he missed a penalty against us in the world cup.
"Thanks." I said, and immediately wrote down the names as soon as I got home. I had research to do.