People seem confused as to which country's players are ''better'' by mixing up who gets signed to European teams and who actually plays better. Those are two separate things. Once you realize that football has become big business, you will also realize that just because you play better doesn't mean you will get signed to bigger teams in Europe, as is the case with Korean players. If everything was based soley on the skills of the players, one would expect that more Korean players would have been signed to European teams especially after the recent World Cup. However, the reality is that, aside from player's skills, it's the perceived MARKETABILITY of the player that ultimately goes to decide who will get signed. In the case of Asian teams, even though Korea consistently has better players, Japan and China get more players signed to bigger leagues such as the Premier League. This means that while the amazing performance of Korea at the World Cup has raised the perceived value of Asian players overall, in the end, European teams are more likely to sign Japanese or Chinese players. Much of this has to do with historical circumstances in that Japan and China have been well-known Asian countries in Europe for hundreds of years before anyone ever heard of Korea (due in large part to Korea's secretive policies for centuries). Chinese and Japanese restaurants are more popular internationally for that same reason. Japan's economy has become one of wealthiest in the world. China has the advantage that they have the world's largest population. Korea, on the other hand, was devastated by war in the early fifties, and had to recover from scratch since then. To be more specific, in the case of Japanese players, Japanese products are considered to have more value and profitability up to now in the global market than Korean products. So the European clubs think more about how much money they will make from T-shirts sold in Japan. They also assume that (like Japanese cars, electronics) Japanese players will be more popular and marketable than Korean players. Not only that, players like Inamoto, Nakata, Suzuki...etc. were partly helped by wealthy Japanese corporations who were willing to sponsor the European teams that would sign them. Money talks. In the case of China, the main reason Chinese players are getting signed to big leagues like the Premier League is because they are much cheaper than Korean or Japanese players. The other reason is that, in the case of England, there is a larger Chinese community (meaning larger consumer base) and more familiarity with Chinese culture within England in general, which translates into perceived marketability. Korean players have long suffered from their perceived lower market value than Japan as well as being undercut by China who are willing to accept the cheapest prices to get their players into Europe. Certainly, this is not helped by the now infamous dirty play by Italy's Perugia who potentially endangered the career of Jung-Hwan Ahn even after (or should I say, precisely because of) his spectacular display during the World Cup. Fortunately, things are changing for the better. Anderlecht's Ki-Hyun Seol has been the leading scorer in the Belgian league after scoring 6 goals in the first 4 consecutive games of the season. Jong-Gug Song has already made an impressive debut for Feyenoord. More Korean players have made their way into Europe such as Duri Cha at Bielefed (Leverkusen) and Eul-Yong Lee at Trabzonspor. Guus Hiddink's PSV Eindhoven are said to be making plans for adding Korean players, namely Nam-Il Kim. Ultimately, I hope the success of more Korean players in Europe finally gains the respect for Asian players as a whole in the world of football, instead of being tokenized as marketable products and number of T-shirts sold. Also, my hope is that the nationalistic rivalries between Asian football countries should take heed from the wonderful camaraderie developing between Jong-Gug Song and Shinji Ono at Feyenoord. May their love of football and friendship help the success of Asian football and help people gradually overcome jingoistic nationalism to the point that this game can truly be called a beautiful game.
well K-league clubs are asking too much money for their players, and they are the only one who dont realize this. their method of pricing their players are NON LOGICAL.
Because they suffer from the same mentality that MLS and the Liga Mexicana does - namely, that they'll make more money in the long run by keeping the players at home and using them as poster boys than they would if they sold them, without really giving much of a rat's ass about the future development of the players in question.
Well, with the World Cup, the proverbial cat is outta the bag. The world over knows that the Koreans can play. It's now up to their K-League teams to let them go!! Sadly, the expected flood of Koreans to the Euro leagues has not arrived, for various reasons.
This is probably right on the money. The Koreans abroad aren't necessarily the best players out there, whereas Nakata, Ono, Inamoto and Nakamura are in the top tier of Japanese players. Of course, there are Japanese players who have struggled to make an impact, namely Suzuki and Kawaguchi.
Both of these comments are rather weak excuses. The marketing point makes a slight amount of sense, because its true that Japanese fans have more purchasing power than Koreans. But the fact is (as teams like Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth have quickly discovered), if a player isnt good enough to make the starting team, and get headlines in the Japanese newspapers, you arent going to make much money from licensing. Therefore the marketing argument fails on the point of whether that means the Japanese (or Chinese) players are "really" any good. If they arent, the marketing effort will fail anyway, so there is no point in signing a player "just" for marketing. The issue of pricing is even weaker. True, K.League clubs seem to be asking unreasonable amounts for their players. But the same barrier exists for J.League players, who will not want to sign for a team in Europe at a price less than what they make in the J.League. Since J.League salaries are higher than those in K.League, that makes it harder for J.League players to make the move unless they are top-class and famous players. Up to last year, few J.League players went overseas for this very reason. No overseas teams were offering enough money to make it worth while. This whole discussion strikes me as someone with a inferiority complex. Korean players are making the move to Europe, regardless of the attitude of their K.League clubs. And the ones that do go are showing very good skills, such as Song Chon-Guk in the match on Saturday. On the other hand, none of the recent Korean players in Europe has made as big an impact as Nakata, Ono or Inamoto. This is partly because Korean players tend to be better as a team than as individuals, and partly because the best Korean players are either defenders (like Song) or wings (like Ahn), who do not play as central a role to their team's offence. There is no need to keep posting these excuses. I havent heard anyone on these boards suggest that "Korean players suck because none of them are getting headlines in Europe". If you feel that way, it just reflects your own inferiority complex. Korean players are very good, as they proved in June. Dont worry, Im sure that Song will be getting plenty of headlines at Feyenoord as the year goes on, and by next year, Ahn probably will too. But by posting these excuses, it just makes you sound like you are jealous that Ono and Inamoto are getting headlines in Europe right now.
there's a bit more to that. The K-League clubs' REFUSAL to let the players go is another one. Some would ask for unbelievable prices, and some just say "NO EFFIN WAY." For the Japanese players' case, marketability does play a role. If a Korean player name A and a Japanese player name B were about the same level, ANY European club would go for B as 1. B does not have to spend over 2 years in military. 2. B will bring lots of Japanese tourist fans and will be able to market the merchandise and earn money. Inamoto "playing" in Arsenal and being nicknamed as a "t-shirt" by some fans shows something. Another one that could be added is that big Japanese corporations help out the transfer of the Japanese players. Nakata got that help to move when Perugia was hesitating to make a deal. But I still say the biggest reason is in the K-League teams. They just simply refuse at the first place without even trying to negotiate.
Someone should bring the K-League owners into the 21st century and tell them that sending their players abroad will only make Korean soccer better.
Actually, I have to agree with SM on the point about merchandising. This is an issue that annoys me a lot as well. Because the marketing deals of successful players like Nakata and Ono, all the European press tries to make it sound like the Japanese players are only being signed for his marketing potential. But a look at the data shows that this is complete crap. Inamoto was called "t-shirt" by a lot of clueless Arsenal fans who thought he was only there because of marketing, and not his true abilities. This year he is showing what fools they were about his abilities, but there is another thing that they overlooked. One reason why Arsenal decided to release him in July was that their attempts at marketing were a total failure!!! Since Inamoto didnt get any action at Arsenal, hardly any replica jersies were sold in Japan, and Arsenal had to repay almost all of the television money because there were clauses included that said the TV broadcasting contracts would only be valid if Inamoto played in a certain number of matches. In reality, even though he was nicknamed "t-shirt" based on people's misconception, Inamoto actually didnt earn Arsenal any money at all. The same is true at Portsmouth, where the team is trying desperately to get rid of Kawaguchi because they arent making any money at all on licensing, like they planned. But Kawaguchi doesnt want to leave so Portsmouth are stuck with a player they cant sell, cant trade, and cant make any merchandising money from. I suppose you do have HALF a point, since the decision to sign a player is based partly on what the club THINKS they can make in marketing deals, not how much they actually DO make. But dont confuse the stereotype with reality. Ono, Nakata and Inamoto are all making huge amounts of money for their clubs now. But only because they are star players who are making a big impact. FGans want to watch the matches on TV, and buy their replica shirt, because they are famous and successful players. But players like Kawaguchi, as well as Jo and Nishizawa in the past, were a total failure from both a playing standpoint AND a marketing standpoint. Im sure that most clubs in Europe have reached the level now, where they will not sign a Japanese player "only" because of marketing potential. First they have to be sure the player is good enough to win a spot on the team. Only if he does make the starting lineup will the team be able to earn any money from marketing activities.
Witness the collapse of the Nakamura to Real Madrid rumors - such a transfer would have been exactly as everyone says, for the purpose of merchandising, and it would only have lost El Madrid money in the long run. No offense to Nakamura, of course, but he wouldn't have seen regular playing time - left wing is los blancos' deepest position.