“There are players who played together at Gimcheon.”
The South Korean national soccer team, led by head coach Jürgen Klinsmann, 59, convened at Hotel Lotte Busan at 3 p.m. on Dec. 12. The team held an open training session at Gudeok Sports Center on the 12th, and then began the second day of training at 10:30am on the 13th.
Park Ji-soo (29, Portimonense) spoke to the media before the training session about the absence of Kim Young-kwon (33, Ulsan) and Kim Min-jae (27, Napoli), who were not called up.
Kim Young-kwon and Kim Min-jae are the two main center backs for the national team and have been working well together, but they are not in the squad.
Kim was granted a special exemption from military service after winning gold at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and was transferred to the arts and sports staff. As such, he must undergo three weeks of basic military training. According to Kim Min-jae’s side, he will enter the training center for basic military training on the 15th.
Main defender Kim Young-kwon is out with a hamstring injury and World Cup member Cho Yoo-min (27, Daejeon) was not named due to a knee injury.
The current squad includes Park Ji-soo, who was dropped just before the World Cup due to injury, and Jung Seung-hyun (29, Ulsan), who replaced Kwon Kyung-won with an ankle injury. Kim Joo-sung (23), who has been playing well for FC Seoul recently, is also a new addition. 안전놀이터
Park said, “Kim Joo-sung and Jung Seung-hyun played together at Gimcheon. We know how they want to play. I don’t have to worry about it,” he said, adding that he was confident that Kim and Kim Min-jae’s absence wouldn’t be too much of a blow as they were included in the squad alongside players they played with at Gimcheon Sangmu.
Park Ji-soo, who joined Gimcheon in June 2021, was in charge of Gimcheon’s defense until December 2022. Park played alongside Kim Joo-sung and Jung Seung-hyun for a year and showed good synergy as they won the K League 2 title.
Park Kyu-hyun (22), who plays for SG Dynamo Dresden in Germany, was also called up for the first time. Primarily a flanker, Park can also play as a central defender and defensive midfielder.