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| Photo=Transfermarkt |
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South Korea needs stars after Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, and Lee Kang-in.
On the 23rd (Korea Standard Time), soccer statistics media Transfermark selected and announced the best-elevance consisting of the highest-paid players from each continent.
Only three Korean players were included in the best-elevance team of Asia's best players. As expected, there were only three superstars currently leading the Republic of Korea. Only Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in of 30 million euros (about 48.5 billion won) and Kim Min-jae of 45 million euros (about 72.8 billion won) were listed.
All but one of the eight remaining seats were filled with Japanese players. Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton) and Kubo Takefusa (Real Sociedad) were placed on the left and right wings. Mitoma was set at 45 million euros and Kubo at 40 million euros (about 64.7 billion won).
Sano Kaishu (Mainz) and Morita Hidemasa (Sporting CP) were selected for the third term. The two players were worth 17 million euros (about 27.5 billion won) and 15 million euros (about 24.2 billion won), respectively. Kim Min-jae's colleague Hiroki Ito (Bayern Munich) and Takehiro Tomiyasu, who plays for Arsenal, were selected for the fullback position. Hiroki was estimated at 30 million euros and Tomiyasu at 25 million euros.
Suzuki Zaion of Italy's Serie A Parma also took the top spot in Asia with 14 million euros (about 22.6 billion won). The remaining spot was taken by Uzbekistan international Abdukodir Husanov, who recently moved to Manchester City.
In reality, there were only Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton) and Hwang In-beom (Feyenoord) who could compete with Japanese players on the list. Even these two players, Hwang Hee-chan's ransom fell significantly due to his poor performance this season, and Hwang In-beom was difficult to be highly evaluated, not in the big league.
In terms of transfer marks, only five Korean players mentioned above were among the top 25 Asian players. Fusanov ranked fourth overall, and all other players were Japanese. I could feel that I was overwhelmingly behind Japan in the player pool. Japan has various players playing in big leagues across all positions, but Korea felt like only superstars remained.
In addition, except for Lee Kang-in, South Korea did not have any players in the 2000s at the top of Asia. Kim Min-jae, Hwang Hee-chan, and Hwang In-beom have already entered their late 20s. On the other hand, in Japan, players in the 21st century, such as Zaion, Kaishu, and Keito Nakamura (Stadren), led by Kubo, were listed at the top.
In the near future, starting with Son Heung-min, if the national teams born in 1996 begin to retire, the reality is that only Lee Kang-in will remain in Korea. The second highest-paid South Korean player after Hwang In-beom was Cho Kyu-sung with 4.5 million euros (about 7.2 billion won). Cho Kyu-sung, who was born in 1998, is not a young player either. In the future, young prospects such as Yang Yang Min-hyuk, Bae Jun-ho, Yoon Do-young and Um Ji-sung must grow well so that Korea can continue to be competitive on the world stage.
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| 사진=QPR |
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Reporter Kim Dae-sik rlaeotlr2024@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
