Will the three gold medalists of the Korean men’s soccer team at the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games in China challenge Europe in January 2024?
The Dutch ‘Subskamer Scout’ lumped Song Min-kyu (24, Jeonbuk Hyundai), Uhm Won-sang (24, Ulsan Hyundai), and Baek Seung-ho (26, Jeonbuk Hyundai) together as “Hangzhou Asian Games winners waiting to enter Europe in the upcoming winter transfer market.”
Subskamer Scouts is a talent search firm founded in 2011 in Groningen, Netherlands. The Netherlands is projected to finish fifth in the 2023-24 UEFA rankings.
Song Min-kyu and Uhm Won-sang have one thing in common: they were scheduled to fulfill their national defense obligations as men’s soccer players of the 2nd Game Team of the Armed Forces Athletic Corps (Commerce) from Dec. 4, 2023 to June 3, 2025, but through their gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games, they met the criteria for inclusion in the athletic staff, which is called “special military service.
Together, the three are tied for ninth on the list of K League 1 match MVPs this season. Hangzhou Asian Games captain Baek Seung-ho is an all-around midfielder who can play as a defensive, central or attacking midfielder and has scored three goals in seven matches at the tournament. He has averaged 74.3 minutes per game with 0.52 points per 90 minutes.
Uhm Won-sang split time between attacking midfield and right wing, scoring two goals and adding two assists in six games to help the team reach the top of the standings at the Hangzhou Asian Games. She averaged 1.23 offensive points per 90 minutes while playing just 48.8 minutes per appearance. Song scored a wedge goal in the quarterfinal match against host China (2-0).
Baek Seung-ho is a European international who has played for Barcelona, Peralada, Girona and Darmstadt (Germany), scoring two goals in 57 games in the Spanish third division from 2016-2019, three games in the Spanish first division in 2019, and two goals and six assists in 41 games in the German second division from 2019-2021.
He scored the winning goal against Brazil in the round of 16 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar (1-4 loss) and was named the 2023 K League 1 Player of the Month. He is also one of only seven Koreans to have played in the second-tier Spanish La Liga.
From October 2021 to January 2022, Song Min-kyu was the subject of transfer rumors to Udinese (Italy), Celtic (Scotland), and Fenerbahçe (Turkey). At the time, the European League rankings were ▲Italy 3rd, Scotland 11th, and Turkiye 13th. 토토사이트
Since his professional debut in 2018, he has scored in four different positions, including left wing, right wing, center forward, and attacking midfielder.
Uhm Won-sang’s international experience includes the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship runner-up, the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup runner-up, the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship winner, and the quarterfinals of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where she contributed to the team’s victory at the Hangzhou Asian Games.