Retired Kim Yeon-kyung is in charge of Heungkuk Life's advisor. I'm also going to the tryout.
Apr 14, 2025
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The Dodram 2024-2025 V-League Awards ceremony was held at the Grand Hotel Convention Hall in Switzerland on the 14th. Kim Yeon-kyung (Hungkuk Life Outside Heater), who announced her retirement from active duty this season, won the women's unanimous MVP award. Kim Yeon-kyung swept 31 votes out of 31 votes in the MVP vote, which was 100% selected by reporters. It is the third time in the history that the MVP of the regular league is unanimous. Lee Jae-young won the unanimous vote once in the 2018-2019 season, and Kim Yeon-kyung will be listed twice from 2024 to 2025 following the 2022-2023 season.
At the same time, Kim Yeon-kyung held her seventh regular league MVP trophy (2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2020-2021, 2022-2023, 2023-2024, 2024-2025) in her retirement season.
He swept this season's championship game MVP and regular league MVP. After finishing best with the victory of his team Heungkuk Life Insurance, he also recorded a unanimous vote of 31 votes (No. 2 in all time) in the MVP vote of the championship game.
Meanwhile, the male MVP was Heo Soo-bong (Hyundai Capital Apogit Spiker). Heo Soo-bong, who received 13 votes, beat his teammate Leo (12 votes) by just one vote in a press group vote to win his first MVP. Villena (KB Insurance Apogit Spiker) came in third with six votes.
The following is a Q&A session with reporters after the awards ceremony.
-How do you feel.
▶I'm having happy days after the championship. Retirement doesn't feel real yet. Now, with the ceremony, the official event will be concluded. I think I'll have a break, but I think I'll have a break and relax. I'm happy because it's the ending I wanted so much because I was able to get MVP and even have a press conference today.
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▶It's hard to pick just one. I used to work out a lot, and when I ate, I talked a lot at the table and gave a lot of advice. Even if the players wanted to get up quickly after eating, they listened to me a lot. to be overly immersed in a gameIf you look at it, you can talk about bad things, and sometimes you get angry. I'm grateful that this season ended well because the players accepted that well and everyone was trying to win.
-I said I would think about my second life while studying. The future course is.
▶Heungguk Life Insurance told me about the things I can do with the club as an advisor. I think I will participate in many things with Heungkuk Life Insurance. Outside of that, I am preparing for the KYK Invitational, and other than that, I want to rest. I think it will be important to rest and find out what I really want to do. It is important to find out what makes my heart beat.
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▶I hope a player like me comes out. I hope there will be a better player than me. There seems to be difficulties, too. There are too few youth pools, and there are many areas that are systematically lacking. It looks like it needs a lot of supplementation. In the end, it seems that the players who come up can learn well only when the youth is strong. I hope to build the youth system a little better so that many good players come out.
-Is there a plan for a leader.
▶There is always an interest in the leader. I had a thought that I wanted to do it since I was young. As you know, a good player never becomes a good leader. I have to study a lot. I know better than anyone that it's not an easy path. There is a caveat. Still, considering the joy felt in the field, I think it will not be easy to leave the field. There may be roles outside the field, so we are looking at them from various angles.
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▶There was a lot of hard work. Every season has its own challenges, but so has this season. Even before entering the KOVO Cup, many people expected it, but it was not mentioned as a favorite on the media day before the season due to the elimination from the preliminary round. I endured it well and played the season well. There was also an injury to foreign players in the middle, and they overcame those well. If I hadn't won until this season, I thought this would have been a bad finish. I went to four finals, but the opponents were all different. I'm glad that I won this time.
-I've been thinking about retirement, but I haven't retired. What would it have been like to retire without winning the championship.
▶ I thought a lot about retiring. I kept thinking about it last year and before that. As a result, I thought about when the time would be good. I got a lot of advice from people around me. I also thought I wanted to stop doing it last year, but I thought I should do it for another year with the help of people around me. I don't think it was easy. There are many good people around.
-He will make his professional debut and retire in the same team. What is Heungkuk Life like.
▶So many things happened with Heungkuk. He also sent me overseas for the first time, but it is also a club that blocked it. Even though the relationship is good and bad, should I go to another team or not during the FA. There was something that kept happening as if we were breaking up and not breaking up. The hate seems to be frightening. It continued to be hateful, but in the end, a new kind of affection was formed and left behind. It's a team I'm thankful for. Looking back now. You look good. There was a regret in the past, but it was a situation that wasn't developed or open at the time, so it's a little bit difficult to understand (laughs), but I hope only a good ending remains for now.
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▶I haven't written a contract yet.(laughs) I don't know yet. I think they'll ask for advice from teams or foreign players. I think you made such a suggestion in the hope that you would not leave the volleyball world. Things got bigger because I thought I might go to a foreign tryout.
-Kim Yeon-koung had a big impact on the box office.
▶I'm actually very worried. I don't think it's going to drop suddenly, but I expect interest to drop. I think we should change the league system in KOVO. Wouldn't the system need something completely different from now, considering factors that more people may be interested in, such as increasing the number of foreign players. In order for many people to be interested in volleyball, international competitiveness is important after all. We have to see how our national team players will grow up and be able to compete in the LA Olympics. We need to plan for the future, not LA, but the Olympics after that.
-If you could pick a few memorable volleyball life scenes.
▶It's difficult, but the Olympics are the most memorable. Only those who have been to the Olympics know how it feels. It's a festival of sports because the world's leading players, such as the atmosphere of the field, are all here. I remember playing there as a player. The first time I went abroad and this last retirement was the most memorable.
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▶I met him as a player-to-player in Japan. There was an older player, so I asked him and he said he was a great legend in Japan. Then he took over as a director. We met and talked a lot when we exchanged with Heungkuk Life Insurance. I even went to Japan to practice individually, but they took good care of me then. I remember it as a good relationship.
-I heard that after the championship, I drank, and I got a plane ticket.
▶After the season, I had a company dinner with the players, and I had some events, so I digested them. As a result, body aches came, not body aches. We have another team dinner tonight. Maybe it's time to wrap up.
-The opinion is that in order to raise the level of domestic players, they need to go overseas.
▶Of course, I think it's good, but if the conditions are not good, it's okay to recruit and bring such players. Raising the league level is also a good way. If it's difficult for us to go out, we can bring such good players to Korea and raise our league level without going out.
-Now, the V League has also increased its annual salary and improved treatment.
▶ That's why we need more competition. If there is no competition among domestic players, motivation should be given through competition with foreign players. The salary has increased so much, and after playing the FA, I thought our women's volleyball salary has increased a lot. Of course, if you do well, you should get paid more, but because the pool is small, there are players who receive good conditions even if they don't keep trying. On the other hand, there are players who can't get it even if they try. I think it's important to make it more competitive. I think that's how the league level will go up.
-I have a game in May, so I'm going to take care of my body.
▶I'm retiring, but I have an event game. That's the biggest concern. I think we should show them just the right amount. I try to take good care of my condition. Training will start this week as well. I think we need to finish the May event well, and I think it will be a good festival for volleyball by inviting a lot of world-class players. I hope a lot of people who like volleyball come.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
