The Korea Football Association (KFA) hosted the 2023 KFA Awards at the Mayfield Hotel in Seoul at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. More than 200 people, including soccer community officials and national team players, attended the event. The Korea Football Association presented the direction of Korean soccer and held award ceremonies for major categories such as “Player of the Year.” 안전놀이터 추천
The “Player of the Year” is an award given to Korean male and female soccer players who have performed the best in the national team and their teams in a year. Since 2010, KFA has commissioned experts and soccer reporters to select the winner.
Kim Min-jae (28, Bayern Munich), who has emerged as the world’s best defender of the year, was chosen as the men’s player of the year. Kim Min-jae was ranked first with a total of 137 points in the voting. Kim finished second behind Son Heung-min (32, Tottenham) for the second consecutive years in 2021 and 2022, but 2023 was different.
Kim Min-jae said, “It’s a great honor. I understand that you want me to do better. It’s natural, but I’ll try harder from now on.”
Kim Min-jae, who led SSC Napoli to win the league title for the first time in 33 years in 2023 and moved to Germany’s “giant” Bayern Munich in the 2023-2024 season and immediately secured the starting position. There were also difficult moments for Kim Min-jae.
In the interview, Kim Min-jae told reporters, “I’m having a hard time. My mental and physical conditions are very low. For the time being, I will focus only on my team. I just want to pay more attention to my team than to the national team.”
In an interview, which can also be seen as “retirement of the national team,” Kim Min-jae later said, “I felt a lot of pressure from the growing weight of the national team that I had only fun with. I wanted to tell you that the mental breakdown was difficult, such as the pressure I felt on the field, the responsibility to always do well, and the disappointment when I lost a point.”
“I felt a lot of pressure because I felt that playing for the national team was an opportunity that I had to take responsibility for and an honor,” Kim added. “However, I have never been complacent while playing for the national team.” Realizing a heavy responsibility as a central defender of the national team, Kim asked Park Ji-sung, the best legend of the Korean national team.
“There were so many things I wanted to ask Park Ji-sung,” Kim Min-jae told reporters after his inauguration ceremony on Tuesday. “I asked him how to put pressure on him and how to do well in international competitions. I think he has found some answers,” Kim said with a light smile.
What advice did Park give to Kim Min-jae? “I think the answer is that if you don’t try hard and focus on playing well, you will be able to show good performance,” Kim said. Meanwhile, Kim, who has improved to become the 2023 Player of the Year, departed for Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with his teammates at Incheon International Airport on Tuesday night.
The team will arrive in Dubai on Thursday local time before moving to Abu Dhabi. The team’s main team will arrive at its lodging in the morning of the 3rd, while other overseas players, including Lee Kang-in, will join the team’s main team in Abu Dhabi on the morning of the 3rd. They are expected to attend their first training session in the afternoon. Lee will join the team on the 4th after playing a match with his team, and the team will hold an official warm-up match against Iraq on the 6th for the final time. Team Korea, which is aiming to win its first title since 1960, will start its Group E competition with Jordan, Bahrain, and Malaysia.
