Yoo Kang-hyun, who had a hard time going back and forth between Korea and the Czech Republic, calmly revealed his growing pains.
Yoo Kang-hyeon is the striker responsible for Chungnam-Asan’s offense this season. He is the team’s all-time leading scorer and most offensive points scorer with four goals and two assists. He is involved in 6 of the 10 goals Chungnam Asan scored in 11 matches. He is characterized by being bold enough to hit 슬롯사이트 the most shots among K-League 2 strikers. He is active and reckless. He was the type of striker that was perfect for the offensive soccer coach Park Dong-hyuk pursued.
Yoo Kang-hyun, who is on a winning streak, is also a player who has endured tremendous twists and turns. After graduating from Seohae High School, he immediately joined Pohang Steelers and attracted a lot of attention, but did not find a place. He went to Daegu FC, but there was no opportunity likewise. After that, he went through the Czech League, Chuncheon Citizen Soccer Team, and Gyeongnam FC, and he grew more than before and left an impression, but all of them were not the main resources.
Yoo Kang-hyun, who joined Asan in Chungcheongnam-do in earnest, is flying properly and is having the best time of his career. ‘Interfootball’ met Yoo Kang-hyeon at Yi Sun-shin Sports Complex, the home stadium of Asan Chungnam-Asan located in Asan, to hear about the past, which was a series of hardships, the present that is increasingly shining brightly, and future goals.
As mentioned earlier, when he joined Pohang in 2015, Yoo Kang-hyun received a lot of attention. This is because at the time he was the only high school player among 29 K Leaguers who came as a free starter. At that time, I was curious about how good Yoo Kang-hyun was. Yoo Kang-hyun humbly said, “I started playing soccer in the first year of middle school because of my parents’ opposition. I hadn’t even played on the national team for each age group. He was a player who wasn’t that good. I took a test and luckily the result was good.”
The high school, whose hometown is Cheonan, came from Siheung. Life in the unfamiliar Gyeongsang Province seemed difficult. Yoo Kang-hyun said, “It wasn’t uncomfortable. I liked all the people I stayed with. It was difficult because I wasn’t well prepared rather than adapting. It’s over. It was really serious,” he recalled.
Yoo Kang-hyun, who had a hard time even after moving to Daegu, cited physical problems as his biggest problem at the time. However, Yoo Kang-hyun went to the Czech league, which is famous for having the best physicals among Eastern Europe. The first Czech team Yoo Kang-hyun went to is Slovacko, a strong team that consistently maintains a top-four position and challenges the competition organized by the European Football Federation (UEFA).
Yoo Kang-hyun said, “I wanted to play in Europe. A good opportunity came and I went to Slovacko. I clearly felt that my physical strength was being pushed back. So I did weight training at a very high intensity. I ate a lot. I also bumped into it roughly on purpose during training. That’s how 6 After six months, I got used to it, but compared to other strikers, I lacked a lot. I couldn’t even win against opponent defenders.”
“At that time, I thought I was good at it and asked the manager to give me a chance. Looking back, I think he would not have used me even if I was the manager. The Czech Republic mainly plays bold football. My competitors were also good, so I had no place to stand.”
Yoo Kang-hyun, who had been adjusting in Slovacko, suddenly returned to Korea. Yoo Kang-hyun, who said, “The reason was a stress fracture,” said, “I tried to rent a second division, but the fracture occurred, and even when I came to Korea and received treatment, the bone did not stick. Son Hyeon-joon, coach of the Chuncheon Citizens Soccer Team, who was there, told me to come, so I played there for a while.”
When he recovered, he went back to the Czech League. This team was Slovan Liberec. It was not a strong team like Slovacko, but it was a team that was consistently in the mid-table. In Team B, Yoo Kang-hyun appeared in 20 games and scored 9 goals. He also made his first team debut. However, he failed to secure 슬롯사이트 his starting position. He went on loan to the lower league teams Sokolov and Hrudim, but the situation was the same.
Regarding Liberec’s life, Yoo Kang-hyun said, “It was better than when I was in Slovacko. Slovacko was in the countryside, so it was far from Prague, but I went to Liberec by train in an hour. If you look at it, I scored more goals than before, but it was too rough and I had a lot of trouble. I also had a lot of stress.”
His long life in the Czech Republic came to an end in 2021. Yoo Kang-hyun said, “I suffered a lot due to differences in culture and food, and I was originally an introvert, so life was difficult, but I learned a lot. I grew up a lot,” he said.
Yoo Kang-hyeon, who came to Gyeongnam, did not receive as many opportunities as he thought. He tried to bring his body up, but in the end it was not completed. Coach Seol Ki-hyun’s soccer also did not perform well. If I had scored, I would have had more opportunities, but it was unfortunate that they didn’t.” It was painful to have fewer opportunities, but it was encouraging to leave a clear impression by participating. It led to joining Chungnam-Asan.