Korean expatriate soccer players

Among Korean soccer players who played in overseas leagues, Huh Yoon-jung, who entered the Hong Kong Pro League South China in 1969, is the first player in Korean history to go overseas. At that time, countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran were all regional leagues, but only in the 1970s they were reorganized into leagues with 1st and 2nd divisions, and Korea and Japan had unemployment leagues, so the Hong Kong league is the most advanced in Asia. It was the only 2nd division system as a semi-pro league.

However, no matter what, the earliest and most successful case among overseas players in Korean soccer is, of course, Cha Beom-geun. You can understand it just by referring to Cha Bum-geun. After Cha Bum-kun, Heo Jung-moo, who scored 15 goals in 77 matches in 3 seasons at PSV Eindhoven, was quite active next to Cha Bum-kun. Even after this, rare semi-class players went to Japan or tried to advance to Europe, but failed due to various reasons.

After the 2002 World Cup, Park Ji-sung and Lee Young-pyo went abroad, succeeded at PSV, and entered the prestigious EPL teams Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, and interest in them exploded. Since then, as a younger generation called the 2002 generation has appeared, more and more overseas fans are having successful careers in Korea.

If we were to pick active overseas soccer players in Korea who are playing abroad, we would consider Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in, Ki Sung-yong, Hwang Eui-jo, Hwang Hee-chan, Hwang In-bum, Lee Seung-woo, Kim Min-jae, Kim Shin-wook, Nam Tae-hee, Jang Hyeon-soo, Seok Hyun-jun, Ji Dong-won, Baek Seung-woo, and Koo Ja-cheol. Reminds me of soccer players.

In the case of Son Heung-min, he spent his childhood in Hamburg at an early age and transferred to Leverkusen and Tottenham Hotspur. When I played for the first team in Hamburg, there was great interest and expectations from the locals. For example, Van Nistelrooy, who played for the same team, posted on social media that Son Heung-min would be a great player. After transferring to Germany's prestigious club Leverkusen, he emerged as an amazing Korean ace, and when he transferred to England's emerging powerhouse Tottenham Hotspur, he emerged as the successor to Park Ji-sung, and eventually surpassed even the legendary Cha Bum-geun's record, becoming the best player in Asia as well as Korea. became a player.

▶ ▶2023년 대한민국 출신 유럽파 선수들 24명 (24 European players from Korea in 2023)

And in the global village, there are 130 to 140 Korean active soccer players from abroad.

The number of active Korean overseas soccer players by country is Germany (8), England (1), Spain (2), France (3), Portugal (3), Austria (4), Croatia (2). ), the Czech Republic (1), Belgium (1), Switzerland (1), Australia (2), North and Central America (2), and South America (1).

In Asia, Japan (35), China (6), Taiwan (1), Hong Kong (3), Qatar (4), Saudi Arabia (3), Malaysia (10), Indonesia (3) ) and Singapore (1 person), there are 66 people in 8 countries.

In addition to these 97 players, it is said that there are 20 to 30 more active soccer players from abroad who have not been identified in Southeast Asia alone. In addition, there are six active female soccer players in Europe, including Ji So-yeon and Jeon Ga-eul.

Source: Outsourcing Times (http://www.outsourcing.co.kr)