Lee Jung-hoo spent half of the compensation money. Song Sung-moon's shocking 12 billion full guarantee, Lee Taek-geun 14 years ago comes to mind

Aug 06, 2025

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Lee Junghoo got half of the reward at once...

Kiwoom Heroes is a club that cannot spend money carelessly. Unlike other big business clubs, there is no support at all. You need to grow your self-sustainability. In the meantime, since it is in the black every year, there is even a saying that it is 'poisonous'.

The image of a club that makes a living by selling players is no longer denied by itself. In fact, starting with Kang Jung-ho and Park Byung-ho (Samsung), Kim Ha-sung (Tampa Bay), Lee Jung-hoo (San Francisco) and Kim Hye-sung (LA Dodgers) left the posting system and received enormous compensation. In the league, he received money as well as players and designation rights through the main player trade.

Although club employees do their best to sell their feet and earn profits in publicity and marketing, the biggest key to club management is to reduce spending. Kiwoom only used 49.7% of salary caps this year. It only spent 5,67876 won. It is a huge difference compared to LG Twins' 13.85616 won, which exceeded the salary cap cap.

The name is rebuilding, but there are no players to use, so we have no choice but to form a team centered on young players. As everyone leaves at the peak of their skills, the power gap with other clubs who spend money is bound to grow bigger.

Photo provided by Kium Heroes

In the meantime, Kiwoom detonated a really surprising large bomb. Song Sung-moon, the team's captain, was given a non-FA multi-year contract with a total guarantee of 12 billion won for six years. It is a move that completely contradicts the team's management stance so far. Kiwoom sent Lee Jung-hoo to San Francisco and earned a whopping $18.825 million in compensation. At that time, the amount was close to 25 billion won based on the exchange rate. Kiwoom decided to spend nearly half of the compensation money on a player after Lee Jung-hoo. The decision will remain in Kiwoom's history.

Several reasons are mentioned in the background. The club cannot be last again next year. A player who would be the central axis was absolutely necessary, and he decided to make a bold investment in the judgment that the player was Song Sung-moon. But not many people believe it straight away. He's such an important player, and I'm rooting for him to try to advance to the Major League through posting after this season. In the end, if Song Sung-moon enters the Major League, he will earn the compensation. It could be killing two birds with one stone as the 12 billion won contract is also broken while throwing away the image of not spending money. Wouldn't it have been right to agree not to try to enter the Major League through this contract if there is a will for next season.

KIA-Kium match held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 26th. Song Sung-moon is delighted after hitting an RBI double with one out and runners on first and second bases in the bottom of the fifth inning. Gocheok = Reporter Jung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.6.26/

They said that they would be targeted and introduce a lower limit on salary cap, so the gaze would have been burdensome. If you have to spend money anyway from 2027, you will have given Song Sung-moon a large amount of money with the calculation of holding on for now, but the relative deprivation of other players will inevitably increase.

It is also a nuisance to the market. There is even a controversy over whether Song Sung-moon has presented conditions that make him feel too reckless when he is a player who has played 'Twinkle' from last year to this year, rather than playing 'Superstar'. It is expected that the price of players scheduled for FA this year and next year will soar. In view of his career so far, at least a negotiator can be beyond imagination if he asserts that `What am I worse than Song Seong-moon?'

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Lee Taek-geun's contract in 2011 comes to mind. It was Kiwoom's surprise, biggest contract before Song Sung-moon. I left for the LG Twins for a while At the time, Kiwoom spent a huge amount of 5 billion won in total for four years to bring in Lee Taek-geun, who was qualified as an FA. At that time, it was a surprising deal that ranked second in total FA. Lee Taek-geun was right to be an outstanding player, but there was a heated debate over whether it was right to receive the highest treatment in the league. At the time, the Heroes said they would wipe the tears of Lee Taek-geun, who was forced to leave in a trade due to financial difficulties, but in reality, they were trying to let them know their health after enduring a situation where it was difficult to pay a subscription fee. This contract became the source of the 'Overpay' frenzy.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.