An Asian Games gold medalist will play in the 2023 K League Cup. Jeong Jae-eun played for Bucheon FC.
The 2023 K-WIN CUP, which pitted amateur women’s teams from 25 professional soccer clubs in the K League, recently concluded. Suwon Samsung won their second consecutive title, defeating Daejeon Hana Citizen 3-0 in the final at the Jecheon Football Center in Chungcheongbuk-do.
The tournament, which grew from 12 teams last year to 25 teams from all K League clubs this year, also attracted some unusual participants. Jung Jae-eun, a gold medalist in women’s golf at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, was one of them.
A regular member of the Korean women’s national golf team from 2002 to 2005, Jung’s career peaked at the Doha Asian Games when she won gold in the women’s team event. In 2014, she won the KLPGA Dream Tour Order of Merit and the Kaido Golf Dream Tour Hyundai Securities 19th Round.
From 2020, a year before her retirement from the tour, she was also active in broadcasting. He commentated on the JLPGA Championship on SPO TV and appeared as an MC on numerous programs on SBS Golf and JTBC Golf Channel.
She was one of the top golfers during her playing days and has been active in golf-related activities off the field since her retirement, so why did she decide to participate in the Queen’s Cup?
“Initially, I started to prepare for the show because I thought I might appear on SBS’s ‘Goal Hitting Girls’ last fall, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen,” Jung said.
However, the gravitational pull of soccer she stumbled upon was irresistible. “After joining Mapo Women’s Soccer Club, I started playing soccer twice a week and going to matches, and I fell in love with soccer. I love sports and have a strong competitive spirit, so I wanted to do well. When I learned skills such as dribbling one by one, and when I scored a goal and won a match while playing, I felt a sense of accomplishment and excitement, which made me continue to play,” Jung explained the appeal of soccer. 안전놀이터
So why did she choose to play for Bucheon? “An acquaintance of mine who is on the staff of Bucheon told me about the Queen Cup, so I naturally auditioned,” she said.
Jeong played in the midfield for eight games. Although she didn’t score any offensive points, it was an unforgettable experience, but the Asian Games gold medalist couldn’t help but be competitive: “I was upset and disappointed that my performance didn’t help the team much,” she says.
She said she was surprised by the love for the sport among women at the Queen’s Cup. “I was surprised that there are so many women who love and enjoy futsal, and there are so many skilled players. There were many good teams, so I was disappointed that we didn’t perform as well as we expected, but it was a fun and different experience,” she said.