Six years into its existence, the Ansan Greeners are looking to make a leap forward with youth development. Having yet to shine in the K League 2, Ansan is choosing to get to a better place. This season, Ansan took on a challenge that no one else has done. They started building data into their youth team, and at the center of it all is Kim Yong-rae, the man who created and implemented it.
Kim Yong-rae took over as Ansan’s youth director this season. He started his career as a scholastic coach and is now a member of the technical committee of the K-League’s TSG.
Ansan recognized his knowledge and ability early on. Owner Lee Min-geun and head coach Kim Gil-sik actively pursued him.
The stumbling block was the lack of continuity at the club. Director Kim Yong-rae was swayed by the sincerity of Lee Min-geun and Kim Gil-sik despite this handicap. “The handicap of civic clubs is weak continuity. When I was offered the job, I was worried that my main job would be taken away due to politics. The executives understood youth development, and the same goes for system building. They had a clear vision. The conditions would be difficult, but it was worth the challenge if there was a stage where it could be done.”
“The owner was very interested in youth development. The management, including Kim Gil-sik, was also very supportive. I’ve been doing youth development for a long time, and I think that’s why they chose me.”
The first thing Kim Yong-rae did after taking over as Ansan’s youth director was to build the data system he had planned. From the U-12, U-15, and U-18 teams, he wanted to change the training, development, and scouting system, which was done fist-to-fist, to objective metrics to maximize fairness and efficiency. 메이저놀이터
“The system I’m building is called ‘Ansan Greeners Discovery. I called it the ‘Ansan Greeners Discovery System’. It’s on the website. The main purpose of the system is to discover good players in the sense of discovering and discovering. We captured a lot of information and digitized it. We built our own server and created an archive. All the training and scouting information is in the archive center,” he said, explaining the new method of development by building data.