Coach Lee Jung-hyo, who is also ignored in South Korea, is set to conquer Asia. The head-to-head match of the quarterfinals of the Asian Championship against Al Hilal, who is "30 times the annual salary."
Coach Lee Jung-hyo, who is also ignored in South Korea, is set to conquer Asia. The head-to-head match of the quarterfinals of the Asian Championship against Al Hilal, who is "30 times the annual salary."
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Director Lee Jung-hyo, who is also ignored in Korea, will conquer Asia.
Gwangju FC will face Al Hilal in the elite quarterfinals of the 2025 AFC Champions League to be held at 1:30 a.m. on the 26th (Korea Standard Time) at Al Inma Bank Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Al Hilal is ahead of others in terms of objective performance. According to a soccer website "Transfermarkt," Al Hilal's current value amounts to 180 million euros. It is a rich team that casually paid Neymar 225 billion won (225 million U.S. dollars) in annual salary last season.
Hoobeng Neves, who was Hwang Hee-chan's teammate at Wolverhampton, also plays Saudi national defender Al Dausari.
Compared with Al-Hilal, Gwangju is one-thirtieth of the size. The team does not have much investment in the K-League 1 as well. Nonetheless, it has been heavily invested thanks to its recent success. According to the 2024 K-League's annual salary expenditure data released by the Korea Professional Football Federation, Gwangju spent a total of 9,661.98 million won (9.9 million U.S. dollars) in annual salary during the 2024 season. The total annual salary of Korean players is also about 7 billion won (approx. The amount is less than that of an Al-Hilal player.
However, the soccer ball is round. No matter how well the players kick, the same 11 players come out. It is a single-round tournament starting from the quarterfinals. This is soccer that causes many unexpected events. Gwangju is the best condition to make a splash. Gwangju, which was an "underdog" in Korea, has nothing to lose anyway.
Despite his recent success, Lee has been neglected even in Korea. "I was the coach and became the coach. I've grown up and promoted myself to a different title," Lee told the Gwangju players. However, the coach said, "The guy who played with me at the conference has grown a lot."
In the process of emphasizing players' mental armament, the Korean soccer community has revealed its bare face. Gwangju players have never played for the national team before. On the contrary, Gwangju has nothing to lose, so even famous players can bump into each other.
The entire K-League hopes Gwangju will win. Gwangju already had its K-League 1 schedule adjusted before going to the AFC Championship. FC Seoul also gave Gwangju convenience by delaying the match for a day. Even after losing to Gwangju 1-2, Seoul coach Kim Ki-dong said, "I hope you do well as you represent Korea."
Coach Lee Jung-hyo has another reason why he really wants to win the title. The Asian Champions League's elite prize money is a whopping 10 million U.S. dollars. It's a small amount of money for Al Hilal, but for Gwangju, you can buy two years of finances at once. 안전놀이터
"I want to go to Saudi Arabia and reach the final. The prize money is 10 million U.S. dollars. I want to use that money to help finance Gwangju," coach Lee Jung-hyo said in a statement. Perhaps, as the Asian stage is as competitive as Korea in terms of envy and jealousy of coach Lee Jung-hyo, it would be possible to have a fair game just with his performance.