As he prepares for some immediate tasks at hand, namely World Cup qualifying matches, Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo is also keeping one eye on the future of the country’s national team program.
It was with this mindset that Hong selected four international rookies to his 26-man squad Monday for the pair of World Cup qualifying matches next month.
The quartet is led by Yang Min-hyeok, the 18-year-old offensive dynamo for the K League 1-leading Gangwon FC. Less flashy but no less important to Gangwon is defender Hwang Moon-gi, who earned his first international call-up at age 27.
The duo will be joined by Lee Han-beom of FC Midtjylland and Choi Woo-jin of Incheon United. Six other players have logged zero or one cap in their 스포츠 previous call-ups.
In explaining his choices, Hong said he wanted to pave the way for a new generation of players to step into the senior national team program and thrive.
“The biggest key to this team is to ensure some stability from previous iterations of the team while also bringing some changes,” Hong said at the Korea Football Association House in Seoul. “I wanted to create an environment where young and inexperienced players can come into the national team setting at any moment and get into matches. To do that, they will have to train with the rest of the veterans and build relationships.”