Park Jae-yong, 23, joins Jeonbuk Hyundai’s long line of domestic strikers.
On the 20th, Jeonbuk announced, 토토사이트 “We have signed Hangzhou Asian Games team striker Park Jae-yong, formerly of FC Anyang.” Park has taken over the number 10 shirt worn by Cho Kyu-sung. Park said, “I’m burdened by the post-Cho Kyu-sung label, but I will prove it with a strong heart.”
Park Jae-yong is a 193cm long striker. He grew up in Suwon Matanjoong, Anyang Gonggo, and Incheon University before being called up to K League 2 FC Anyang in 2022 to make his professional debut. In his debut season, he made 21 appearances and scored two goals. This season, he scored six goals in 18 games.
His stellar performances this year earned him a spot in Hwang Sun-hong’s final roster for the Hangzhou Asian Games. He competed with the likes of Chun Sung-hoon (Incheon United), Lee Ho-jae (Poha Steelers) and Heo Yul (Gwangju FC) in his age group. He has a good chance of making the A team starting at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Jeonbuk has made good use of tall domestic players like Park Jae-yong. Their immediate striker is Cho Kyu-sung (185cm). Like Park, Cho Kyu-sung joined Jeonbuk from FC Anyang in the K League 2. He joined Jeonbuk in early 2020 and was touted as the next Lee Dong-guk. Cho Kyu-sung and Lee Dong-guk played together for one season.
Excluding his military service (Gimcheon Commerce), Cho spent two and a half seasons with Jeonbuk, scoring 13 goals in 43 K League games. His strengths include headers from high deliveries, pressing forward with his wide range, and shooting from behind the defence. Earlier this month, Cho Kyu-sung moved to Mittwilan in Denmark to complete his dream move to Europe.
There was also Kim Shin-wook (196cm). Kim wore the green jersey of Jeonbuk for three and a half seasons, from the 2016 season to mid-2019. He scored 37 goals in 118 league appearances for Jeonbuk before being called up by his old coach Choi Kang-hee in the summer of 2019 to join Shanghai Sanggang in the Chinese Super League (CSL). Since then, he has played for Singapore’s Ryan City and now Hong Kong’s Kitchee SC.
Kim Shin-wook recently appeared on the ‘Do this for me Won Hee-hyung’ channel and shared his secret to scoring so many goals for Jeonbuk. He said, “Jeonbuk has good flankers. We had a lot of goal chances thanks to good crosses from players like Lee Yong-soo and Kim Jin-soo.”
As Kim Shin-wook explains, Jeonbuk is a team that reinforces its national-level flankers every season so that it can make good use of its long strikers. Currently, Moon Sun-min, Song Min-kyu, Lee Dong-joon, and Han Gyo-won are the flankers, while Kim Jin-soo, Jung Woo-jae, Ahn Hyun-beom, and Choi Cheol-soon are the defenders. The picture of stirring from the flanks and finishing in the centre is a natural one.
Jeonbuk’s tallest domestic striker is Lee Dong-guk (187cm). He moved to Jeonbuk in 2009 and remained the club’s number one for 12 seasons until his retirement in 2020. Apart from the two seasons before his retirement, he scored double-digit goals in 10 consecutive seasons. He scored 228 goals in his career in the K League, 164 of which came with Jeonbuk.
In addition to the aforementioned Cho Kyu-sung, Kim Shin-wook, and Lee Dong-guk, there are a number of other long strikers in the Jeonbuk ‘Dakgong’. Jung Sung-hoon (190cm), Edu (184cm), and Gustavo (189cm) played as strikers in the 2010s and 2020s, while Kim Do-hoon (183cm), Edmilson (184cm), Son Jung-tak (196cm), and Zekalo (186cm) played in the position in the 2000s.