Jung Sung-ryong (정성룡), Kim Jin-hyeon (김진현), Park Il-gyu (박일규) and Kwoun Sun-tae (권순태) are South Korean goalkeepers currently guarding the net for clubs in J.League as mainstays, with a total number of appearances of 100 or above.
Believe it, Kim Jin-hyeon has played for his club for nearly 500 games and could have become a one-club man if he hadn’t left Cerezo Osaka before his retirement.
Not to mention, in the old days, Gu Sung-yun (구성윤) was a former Consadole Sapporo goalkeeper at the time Thailand’s Chanathip Songkrasin made his debut in J.League, but unfortunately, he had to return to South Korea to do military service for two years.
Besides, star national player Kim Seung-gyu (김승규) joined Vissel Kobe and Kashiwa Reysol in J.League and maintained his excellent goalkeeping skills.
How come there is an influx of Korean goalkeepers in J.League? Let’s find out with Main Stand.
Superior body height
It is understandable when the reason behind signing Korean players solely deals with their superior body heights and physiques conducive to performance on the pitch.
Korean men’s average height is slightly higher than Japanese men’s. (172.5cm for Korean men and 170.7cm for Japanese men). But the actual difference is related to ethnicity.
The Japanese archipelago has been dubbed Wa (倭) by mainland Japan to date, evidenced by the term Wagyu which means “Wa’s meat.”
But actually, “Wa” means dwarfs, as Wa people were smaller than people in mainland Japan at large, as seen in the picture by Yan Liben (閻立本), a painter during the Tang dynasty below.
According to the image, the Wa people were much smaller than Goguryeo (高句麗) and Silla (新羅), who were currently dwelling in the Korean peninsula, while they were roughly as tall as Baekje (百濟) in the western Korean peninsula. As a result of commercial ties with Southeast Asia, Baekje might have genetically inherited from the region and are smaller than Goguryeo and Silla, who were pure “Han (漢).”
Although nutrition, science, and medical breakthroughs nowadays promote Wa’s heights and figures, physical characteristics determined by ethnicity cannot be changed easily.
To give a clearer picture, Thai footballers are given proper nutrition and training programs to strengthen muscles, but they are still disadvantageous in body size compared to European players, African players, or even those in the Middle East.
No matter how well-trained Thai players are, their physical characteristics are huge challenges, so they need to adopt playing styles that fit with their figures.
Likewise, there are tall and well-built Japanese goalkeepers, but using ideally tall Korean goalies is a shortcut. On top of that, Japanese players with good physiques should be cultivated to be center forwards instead, right?
But if body height is the only criterion, why don’t J.League sign players from the Middle East to defend the goalpost? Let’s dig deeper.
Historical backgrounds are the cause
Needless to say, Japan and South Korea are long-time rivals in all respects, ranging from big issues like comfort women to the Rising Sun flag as they remind South Korea of how their nation was brutally oppressed in the colonial era and World War II.
Although nationalism is where the conflict stems from, the long-standing proximity between the two nations is deep-rooted. The Japanese archipelago and the Korean peninsula have been associated since the prehistoric era, especially in commercial aspects, as Japanese junks stopped by the Korean peninsula to travel to the mainland.
For this reason, Japan and Korea’s culture, philosophy, and ways of life were assimilated. Political conflicts also played their part, but people weren’t bothered by that. They just lived and traveled back and forth normally, like Thais and Cambodians in the “Khao Phra Wihan National Park” area who do business ordinarily. Instead, politics results in people migrating, dodging the bullets, and making ends meet.
Even when Korea was annexed to the Empire of Japan, Korea was assimilated into Japan in several aspects, and vice versa, including football.
George Slade, a K League United author, opined:
“For over two thousand years, these two countries in their various forms have traded, fought and learnt from each other. Sport is no different…In 1935 a Korean team, Kyungsung FC, became the only non-Japanese team in history to win the tournament.”
According to George Slade, Korea is “marginalized” in every aspect, except for football. Football minimized Korea’s marginalization until Korea gained independence from Japan — there were ethnic Korean diasporas in Japan called Zainichi (在日韓国人).
Zainichi sporadically emigrated to Japan. The first group settled down in Japan permanently in the colonial era, followed by another group during the Second World War, most of whom were males conscripted by Japan. Later, another Zainichi Korean group was over a million refugees, mostly leftist, Marxist, and communist Koreans running away from the massacre under authoritarian president Rhee Syngman of South Korea.
Although most Zainichi Koreans were excellent low-paid workforces in the era Japan’s industry was thriving, exclusionary practices were applied to them as if they were Burakumin (部落民), the lowest and most repugnant class in Japanese society. Confronted by social discrimination, they needed to stick together as Mindan (민단), the Korean Residents Union in Japan, to establish their community and infrastructure, not to mention education.
As a result of the rising popularity of football among Japanese people, the notion “everyone is equal when it comes to football,” has been embraced. Regardless of socioeconomic status, social group, and levels of education, everybody can enjoy football.
It is like turning on a flash in Men in Black to wipe out the mind of anybody. When it comes to football, Zainichi South Koreans, people all forget Zanichi ethnicities, focusing solely on their footballing capabilities. And Zainichi's descendants make sterling feats and have eventually overcome the insults piled on them.
Tadanari Lee (李 忠成) or Lee Chung-sung (이충성), a Zainichi Japan national footballer, a descendant of 벽진이씨, has unquestionably grown into a legendary forward at Kashiwa Reysol and Urawa Red Diamonds. He bagged a solitary goal for the Japan national football team in the 2011 Asian Cup Final, beating Australia and defending champion. Tadanari Lee has become Japan’s sporting hero.
Based on the aforementioned, Korean players are as respectable as Japanese ones in football as they are eligible to represent the country, no different from domestic players.
In fact, before J.League’s inception, Korean players who played in K.League played semi-professionally in Japan (K-League and J.League were founded in 1983 while J.League was founded in 1992), for example, Park Yoon-ki (박윤기) playing for Mazda (Sanfrecce Hiroshima) and Chang Woe-ryong (장외룡) for Tosu Futures (Sagan Tosu) in 1988-89.
Even Kashiwa Reysol signed South Korea’s legend Hong Myung-bo (홍명보) to play as sweeper, igniting the “Hong fever” in the 2000s which inspired and influenced many center-back players’ style of playing in J.League.
Whether goalie or not, Korean players who outgrow their compatriots can get a chance to pursue their careers in J.League.
This is a win-win situation as J. League recognizes the quality of the imported South Korean players and the players themselves believe going to Japan will equip them with extensive experience and footballing skills.
Make hay while the sun shines
Diving to the bottom, many will realize that the reason J.League signs Korean players is contrary to K.League, which signs a handful of Japanese players for big value deals.
K.League was established 10 years before the J.League. But time flies by, and J.League’s market value has surpassed the South Korean top division.
J.League’s total market value is €288m while that of K.League is approximately €155m, around twofold higher. In other words, J.League’s market value is roughly €16m per club, while K.League’s market value is €13m per team.
J.League is mainly sponsored by Meiji Yasuda, a leading Japanese insurance company, with a total sponsorship value of €12.96m, while K.League is given financial support by Hana Bank, South Korea’s leading bank totaling €11.52m.
Speaking of annual wages, J.League players receive around €320k while those in K.League are paid around €160k, doubly lower than J.League.
Sure enough, as J.League’s financial rewards are more appealing, Korean players do not miss a chance to ply their trade with J.League once in their lifetime.
In particular, goalkeepers are a linchpin in modern football, prioritizing playing offense from the goal area. And Korean goalkeepers are tensely trained for bursts of footwork, so their Korean ways of playing are perfect matches for J.League football.
Regardless, should Korean goalkeepers keep up their good performance and lead their sides to succeed at the domestic and continental levels, they will be much-coveted players in Japan for years to come.
Sources:
หนังสือ Koreans in Japan: Critical Voices from the Margin
หนังสือ ประวัติศาสตร์ญี่ปุ่น โดยสังเขป
หนังสือ สังคมและวัฒนธรรมญี่ปุ่น
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https://inf.news/en/sport/ab89e0ea30b8a5647d0bcaad07aeb7d7.html
