Daejeon Hana Citizen, led by coach Lee Min-seong, is the team with the most prudent foreign player recruiting policy among the K-League 1 teams ahead of the opening of the 2023 season.스포츠토토
K-League 1 applies the 5+1 foreign quota system from the 2023 season. The K-League allowed five foreign players per team, regardless of nationality, and allowed one additional player from an AFC member country. This is the result of the AFC trying to change the foreign quota system of the AFC Champions League.
Currently, 12 teams in the K-League 1 are making full use of this system. Daegu FC enters the season with a full 5+1 quarter. There are a total of four teams with foreign players in 4+1: Gwangju FC, FC Seoul, Suwon FC, and Ulsan Hyundai. As the quota for foreign players has been expanded, they are competitively using it.
However, in the 2022 season K-League 2, Daejeon Hana, which was evaluated as having the strongest power, is somewhat quiet. Currently, they have two Brazilian players, Leandro and Thiago, and one Japanese striker, Martha. Willian, who was responsible for the team’s attack last year, has been transferred to FC Seoul on loan.
It is the only team (Daejeon Hana, Jeju United) that has only three foreign players regardless of nationality, and Daejeon Hana is the only team with foreign players in 2+1. I asked director Lee, who I met on the 15th at Samsung Hotel in Geoje, where Daejeon Hana is staying, by mentioning this point. He asked whether the foreigner quota would go on as it is. The director then replied, “No.”
Manager Lee said, “We are constantly looking for foreign players. Anyway, the registration period for foreign players is until next month. At the same time, he said, “I am looking at a left-footed left center back and an attacking midfielder,” and he left a hint that he would add more foreign players.
He is calculating that he will watch until the end of March and fill the positions he lacks with foreign players. In other words, it seems to be a calculation that will straighten the spine from the center back to the striker, rather than ‘bombing’ foreign players in the attacking line. Although the number of foreign players currently training together is small compared to other teams, Daejeon Hana does not forget that foreign players play a large part in the team’s performance.