Fans who support Gangwon FC, a professional soccer team, are in deep trouble this summer.
This is because young striker Yang Hyeon-joon (21) seized the opportunity to advance to Europe while Gangwon was in danger of relegation.
Hyunjun Yang recently received an official offer from Celtic, Scotland. Celtic, where Ki Sung-yueng and Cha Doo-ri played in the past, is not a prestigious club in Europe, but it is a good club for a leap forward.
Celtic has selected Asia as a new player supply chain, and they are also targeting Yang Hyun-jun following the acquisition of Oh Hyun-kyu from Suwon Samsung earlier this year.
An agent active in the K-League said in메이저사이트 a phone call with a reporter on the 27th, “A high-ranking Celtic official visited Korea in May for a due diligence on the Korean tour and announced plans to continue supplying players from Korea and Japan in the future. Yang Hyeon-joon’s recruitment was also a story that came out on the spot.”
Celtic did not immediately pay the full amount in exchange for taking Hyun-Jun Yang, but they also offered an acceptable transfer fee.
The problem is that Gangwon is not in a situation where Yang Hyeon-joon is willing to let go. Gangwon is currently in 11th place out of 12 teams having played 19 matches.
If Gangwon ends the season as it is, it may be pushed to the second division depending on the K League 2 team and the promotion playoff result. Gangwon has the pain of returning to the first division in 2017 after falling to the second division in the last place in 2013.
An official from Gangwon asked back, “We respect Hyun-jun Yang’s dream, but can’t we say that the dream of the other 41 players continuing to play in the first division is light?”
What is interesting is the change in fan spirit. Opinions to push the player and the claim that the survival of the first division of the club is the priority are mixed. It is different from actively supporting a player, not a club, whenever a transfer dispute occurred in the past.
Witnessing a similar case earlier this year also had an effect on fans not being able to force Yang Hyun-joon to Celtic. Suwon also opposed Oh Hyun-gyu’s transfer, but was swept away by public opinion and sent Oh Hyun-gyu to Celtic, but fell to last place in the aftermath of not finding a suitable replacement.
Furthermore, Gangwon is trying to turn things around by recruiting coach Yoon Jung-hwan as a new command tower. In the first game, they won a valuable victory point against Suwon FC, but in order to escape from the relegation zone, power reinforcement is needed, not power leakage.
An official from Gangwon said, “It would have been better if Celtic had made us immobilized.” It is difficult to find a replacement for Hyun-jun now. He said, “I want you to think of a winter transfer instead of now.”