Tottenham's S. Korean Teen Yang Min-hyeok Loaned to 2nd-tier Club | Be Korea-savvy

Tottenham’s S. Korean Teen Yang Min-hyeok Loaned to 2nd-tier Club


This photo captured from the official X page of Queens Park Rangers on Jan. 30, 2025, shows the English club's new South Korean player, Yang Min-hyeok. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)

This photo captured from the official X page of Queens Park Rangers on Jan. 30, 2025, shows the English club’s new South Korean player, Yang Min-hyeok. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire)Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean teenager Yang Min-hyeok has been loaned to a second-division club without playing a match for the Premier League side.

Queens Park Rangers (QPR) announced Wednesday (Britain local time) that they acquired the 18-year-old winger on a loan deal for the rest of the 2024-2025 campaign.

“I am really happy to be here and I will try to do my best for the team,” Yang was quoted as saying on QPR’s website. “In every single match, I will try to help the team win and to make the fans happy. Any time that I can have an opportunity for the team, I am ready.”

Tottenham first announced their signing of Yang in July 2024, while the teen phenom was playing for Gangwon FC of the K League 1. Yang traveled to London in December after the end of the South Korean season and officially joined Spurs earlier this month.

However, Yang never once played for Tottenham, unable to join the club’s South Korean captain, Son Heung-min, on the pitch. On Jan. 3, their head coach Ange Postecoglou said he had “no real plan” to play Yang right away.

“He is still very young and has come in from the other side of the world where the level of competition is nowhere near what he is going to face here,” the coach said. “We will just give him time to adapt. We are just trying to get him settled early and give him the chance to settle in.”

Yang will now try to recapture some of the magic that made him the hottest young player in the K League 1 last year. He was voted the Young Player of the Year and was also nominated for the MVP award, after leading all freshmen with 12 goals and six assists and helping Gangwon to a runner-up finish, the best performance in club history.

“When I joined a professional club in South Korea, I was very eager and very hungry to play in a professional league,” he said. “Now, I have come to England and I am still eager and still hungry to succeed.”

Yang said he was familiar with QPR, having watched South Korean legend Park Ji-sung play for the club in the 2012-2013 season before they were relegated to the second-tier English Football League Championship.

QPR earned promotion back to the top competition for the 2014-2015 season, only to be relegated again immediately. They have not been back in the Premier League since.

For this season, they are in 13th place with 38 points on nine wins, 11 draws and nine losses.

(Yonhap)

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