“A very new event for Argentine football,” the Social and Sports Club announced. Yupanqui the official presentation of its brand new reinforcement, South Korean central midfielder Jung Euihyeon, 21 years old. But the novelty is not its origin, already striking for a reinforcement of a club from deep promotion – in the First C -, but rather it will be the only player on the team to have his own sponsors on his clothing, an initiative that is unprecedented in Argentine football. “I play like Iniesta,” he introduced himself, somewhat nervous, at the press conference held at the club’s buffet. Then he corrected himself, with a pure smile: “I want to play like Iniesta.”
The official story indicates that the young South Korean attended a test through his representative when the squad was already complete to start the season and his conditions excited coach Facundo Ledesma, who immediately asked to sign him. “’Are you sure?’ the president asked me. And I told him that technically it was going very well. They moved quickly, they were able to sign him and he adapted very well. “He knew how to play tricks and a lot of things,” said the coach. The same story indicates that to take advantage of the new contract, they sought to attract sponsors through the marketing advisor Marcelo Papazian, who seduced Gabriel Pressello, cultural manager and owner of the Café Seúl restaurant, and Alejandro Yoon, owner of Gangnam Express – a company that sells Korean products -, with the idea of sponsoring a single player’s jersey.
“We have to believe in the project and get more people to believe in the project,” Papazian celebrated, convinced that it will be a before and after in which the clubs will have one more variant to generate income and dissemination. Proof of this is that 300 Jung Euihyeon t-shirts have already been reserved at a value of 25 thousand pesos each and they assure that for Yupanqui it is a pre-sale record for a player who has not yet made his debut. “I have been working in the management of Korean culture in Argentina for many years. And when the idea came to me, I grabbed it because they are the ideas that I usually work with,” said Pressello, who understands that this is a great opportunity for an initiative of these characteristics in times of great popularity of Korean culture through gastronomy, K-Pop and series.
Accustomed to creativity for subsistence, The humble Villa Lugano club that is in 13th place in the First C faced a new media action that reminded us of that Coca Cola advertising campaign, back in 2001, when in one of the five announcements that were made, the Yupanqui players went out onto the field and were received by only a handful of fans. The slogan of said advertising was “the club with the fewest Argentine soccer fans… but not with less passion.” The commercial was a great boost, since the club surpassed the record of spectators (96) and also achieved an average of eight memberships per day and currently has 2,600 members who can carry out a dozen sporting activities at the Guaminí headquarters. 4512. Fede, as they call him here because of the difficult pronunciation of his name, arrived in that context after his time at Deportivo Español, Atlanta, Club Catedral and Argentino de Quilmes.
“I love the way Iniesta plays because he has a lot of skill with the ball and I want to play like him,” Jung Euihyeon, who also always had his compatriot Park Ji-sung, Carlos Tevez’s former teammate in the game, as a reference in his position. Manchester United, and is proud of everything achieved by Heung-min Son, from Tottenham Hotspur: “I really like his mentality, because it is very difficult to be successful abroad as an Asian. “When I arrived here the kids told me They are because of him.”
Jung Euiheyon is part of the short list of Asians who came to Argentine football, with the exception that all the others were Japanese. The most striking and innovative hiring was that of Nahoiro Takahara, who had a short stint at Boca in 2001, during the presidency of Mauricio Macri. He played little and scored only one goal, in a 6-1 against Lanús in La Bombonera. He was followed by Yusuke Kato, who arrived at Huracán in 2004 at the age of 18 and was coached by Antonio Mohamed when Globo achieved promotion to first division in 2007. He could only score one goal, in a 2-1 win against Talleres, and he terminated his contract at return from a loan at Defensores de Belgrano. It is also worth remembering that in 1999 he passed through River Takahiro Kawamura, but he quickly left Núñez since Ramón Díaz never gave him minutes. Recently, Argentinos Juniors signed Ryoga Kida, 18, who arrived on loan and with an option to buy from Nagoya. In women’s soccer they tend to achieve greater continuity: Ichika Egashira, 21, signed last year in Excursionistas, being the first Asian in Argentine soccer, and then went to River. Luna Watanabe, a 20-year-old midfielder, was brought in last year by Ferro. Yuria Sasaki, 20, signed with Boca and Fuko Takahashi, 26, was hired by Gimnasia.
“This is very important to develop my career in football. I am very happy with this opportunity and I want to take advantage of it,” South Korean Jung Euihyeon is now excited about the continuity. Or Faith. Or the new Iniesta that Yupanqui hired.
Themes
Other Primera C news
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/lanacionar/SPLCLBLPI5EDLI67OGIH6E5QWA.jpg)
Unusual regulation. They lost the final by a landslide due to promotion, but they still celebrated that they went up to B Metro
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/lanacionar/KDSYTPI5YNHMHHC5D25ZMBS374.jpg)
Tapia’s last play. The strong measure that the president of the AFA determined with the promotion and that will change him forever
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/lanacionar/E4ARE55HFBE7FN2AFFVKJMOYGU.JPG)