2024-04-14 17:36:51
Gangwon opening game ‘35-second lightning goal’ protagonist
7 goals in 6 games… Exceeded the most goals of the season
8 years ago, I met coach Yoon Jeong-hwan in Ulsan.
“Joined after seeing the manager” Free contract to Gangwon
“The young man is really good at soccer.”
Lee Sang-heon (26, Gangwon) often played early soccer games last winter to maintain his condition. At that time, an elderly man who did not know that Lee Sang-heon was a professional player praised him as an all-rounder from defense to attack. Lee Sang-heon said, “The goal was to develop a sense of the game, so I didn’t play soccer too early,” and added, “When I received that compliment, I thought, ‘I need to be good at soccer in the pros so that everyone recognizes me.’”
Lee Sang-heon has now become a player that even professional players must know. Lee Sang-heon scored 35 seconds into the game against Jeju in the opening game of this season, and has scored two goals in a row in the last two games. Just like that, he has already scored 7 goals in 6 games. Currently, the top scorer in professional soccer K-League 1 (1st division league) is Lee Sang-heon. Lee Sang-heon, who had previously recorded 5 goals (23 games) in 2018 as the highest individual score in K League 1, said, “I received so many congratulatory calls that I felt dazed as if I was dreaming. “I want to do well so that we can smile until the end of the season,” he said.
Even last year, when Lee Sang-heon was a member of the K-League 2 (second division) team Busan, he was called an ‘out-of-date prospect.’ It wasn’t an entirely wrong assessment, as the player who was selected for the 2017 Under-20 World Cup team finished the season with the second-tier team in the K4 League (4th Division). Lee Sang-heon said, “I was injured early in the season. I wanted to improve his game sense ahead of his return, so I voluntarily went to K4. But after that, no opportunity came.”
It was Gangwon coach Yoon Jeong-hwan who gave him the opportunity. Coach Yoon, who took the helm of Ulsan in 2015 and 2016, did not forget Lee Sang-heon, who played for Ulsan Hyundai High School, a youth team. At the time, Lee Sang-heon’s stock was rising as he became the top scorer (11 goals) in the first half of 2016 in the ‘K League Junior’, a competition between professional soccer youth teams. Coach Yoon also cared about Lee Sang-heon enough to invite him to first-team training. However, the relationship between the two did not continue as Coach Yoon moved to Cerezo Osaka (Japan) as head coach in 2017, when Lee Sang-heon joined Ulsan.
Lee Sang-heon, who joined Gangwon as a free agent after the end of last season, said, “I heard that Coach Yoon tried to recruit me when he was coaching in Japan. This time too, he came to Gangwon to see only one director. During the meeting, the director said, ‘It’s been 8 years, right? He said, ‘Let’s do well,’ and he felt motivated to live up to expectations.”
Of course, you cannot be good at soccer with just your mind. Lee Sang-heon originally went on vacation for up to two weeks after the season ended, but after last season, he did personal training every day without vacation. Lee Sang-heon said, “I have a lot to go to Seoul in December because of his fellow players’ weddings. Last year, he stayed in Seoul for a while and received personal training (PT). It was the first time in his life that he had received PT. He focused on agility and reaction training. He said, “I felt like my speed was slowing down while playing, but PT training really helped me a lot.”
Gangwon will play a visiting game against ‘defending champion’ Ulsan on the 13th. It has been 5 years, 6 months, and 21 days since Lee Sang-heon faced Ulsan, his debut team, on September 23, 2018, when he was on loan at Jeonnam. In 2018, Jeonnam beat Ulsan 1-0 with Lee Sang-heon scoring a goal. Lee Sang-heon said, “I have special feelings. I think that meeting a strong team has put both me and the team to the real test. “I will prepare well so that I can show a good side of myself so that people can say, ‘I grew up well,’” he pledged.
Reporter Kim Bae-joong [email protected]
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2024-04-14 17:36:51