Chugoku Internet Star “Kim Young-kwon a starter in five European soccer leagues”
It’s been five seasons since center back Kim Young-kwon (33-Ulsan Hyundai) left China, where he played at his peak in the mid-2010s. However, his local status as a soccer player has not diminished.
On September 12, Zvoba wrote, “If Kim hadn’t come to the Chinese Super League, he would have started for a mid-table team in the top five European leagues. The defender has shown the ability to do so.”
Zvoba is a creator with 296.7 million subscribers. He provides sports content for Chinese portals such as Sina.com and Wangyi (English name Netease).카지노사이트
The top five leagues in European soccer by market size are the English Premier League (EPL), Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, and French Ligue 1.
Kim Young-kwon was honored with the 2013-2016 Chinese Super League Best 11, 2015 East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Championship Most Valuable Player, 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Dream Team, and 2020 Japan J1 League Fan Voted Team of the Year.
‘Zvoba’ also appreciated the way Kim Young-kwon openly admitted his mistakes during the controversial 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia final qualifiers and made up for them with his performance.
After the 0-0 home draw with Iran, in which Kim played the entire match as a center back while wearing the captain’s armband, he was heavily criticized for saying, “The crowd was very loud and it was very difficult to communicate on the pitch, so I couldn’t perform what I had practiced.”
However, Kim started all three of South Korea’s round of 32 matches in Russia, where they finished 19th, and played the entire tournament without being substituted. He scored the winning goal in the second minute of stoppage time in the final Group F match against defending champions Germany (2-0).
Two years later, he was recognized as a top defender in the Japanese top flight. Last season, he was a member of the national team in the K League 1 Best 11 and the FIFA World Cup Qatar Round of 16.
Ulsan Hyundai returned to the top of the K League 1 after a 17-year absence with the signing of Kim Young-kwon for the 2022 season. Chinese Super League side Shanghai Haigang attempted to sign Kim to help them qualify for the 2023-24 AFC Champions League, but were unsuccessful.