Yang Min Hyeok to Tottenham Hotspur: Overview and Timeline

Since the start of the K League 2024 season, you could tell that Yang Min Hyeok was destined for greatness. The young 17 year old, in his second ever professional match for Gangwon FC, scored in the second minute and played 90′ against Jeju FC in a 4-2 loss for his team. For those of you not familiar with the K League, this does not happen often – teenagers playing full time in the K League is rare by itself (until just a few years ago aspiring footballers legally couldn’t sign a professional contract until age 18 – this is getting better though so maybe this view is slightly outdated, but it’s still true). Seeing youngsters play so well, so naturally against much older, established K League veterans – even rarer. As the season went on he would become Gangwon FC’s star player, currently on 7 goals and 3 assists in 24 matches, having won numerous Young Player of the Month awards and becoming the youngest goalscorer in K League history. In May he absolutely embarrassed Kim Jin Su, once the national team starting left back, as well as other Jeonbuk defenders in a 2-1 win (man oh man was that satisfying to watch). The dribbling, the speed, the flair, the finishing – this kid had it all, and when May-June rolled around it was extremely obvious who was going to win the K League young player of the year at the end of the season.

Even for us Korean fans, Yang Min Hyeok was not the most well known name until this year – he played very well in the 2023 AFC U-17 championship as well as the FIFA U17 World Cup under up and coming star manager Byeon Sung Hwan (who by the way has emerged as Suwon Bluewings’ hero, guiding them to the top of K League 2 after their ignominious relegation last season). But who could’ve expected that he would emerge as one of the best wide forwards/wingers in the K League? We have extremely promising youth players all the time who either don’t play for their clubs or just fizzle out into obscurity – even Jurgen Klinsmann pointed out what a travesty it is that pretty much the entire 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup squad that made it to the semifinals of that tournament don’t even play for their clubs in the K League.

Now that we established that Yang Min Hyeok’s career is already off to an unusually good start for K League standards and a super unique one (for the better), let’s talk about this transfer saga. In late June rumors were circulating that a London EPL team was trying to sign YMH:

It all started on 6/27 when Gangwon FC President Kim Byung Ji announced that they were negotiating with a London based team in the upper table of the Premier League. This narrowed down the likely list of clubs to Chelsea, Spurs, West Ham, or Arsenal. He said that this transfer would likely break the K League transfer fee record, and that YMH would likely be loaned back to Gangwon for some time prior to joining the team in London. That same day, on his personal Youtube account he stated that Spurs, Man City, and Swansea City (FYI if you missed it Swansea City signed Eom Ji Sung instead) all expressed interest at some point. He also clarified that the team in question is a top 6 English team and literally said “when asked about the 4 potential London based clubs, “”is West Ham a big club?” (I kid you not), narrowing the candidates for Yang’s signature down further to Tottenham, Arsenal, or Chelsea.

That day Park Moon Sung also weighed in saying that the most likely destination was Tottenham. And here we are, a month later on 7/24, Fabrizio Romano official:

To fellow Korean fans: this is almost unprecedented. Even older talented wingers/wide forwards like Song Min Kyu, Um Won Sang, Eom Ji Sung, who have played so well in the K League for so long, either haven’t moved at all (sadly) or are just moving to Europe this season. And Yang Min Hyeok is having a better season as a 17-18 year old on his debut than any of them. For a guy who just turned 18 to move straight to a TOP EPL team? The closest precedent is probably Lee Chung Yong (20-21 years old, transferred to Bolton Wanderers, and got player of the year in his debut season in the EPL) – that’s how special YMH must be. And it’s pretty clear that this guy is one of the best wingers in the K League right now, if not the best.

The question on most of our minds is – will he actually play for Tottenhams’ A team? I don’t know – you can never predict these things. Is it the best idea to move to such a big team right away? Is loaning back to Gangwon until January the right move? Could he have just been loaned to Gimcheon Sangmu instead and get military service out of the way? Or do the Spurs camp and YMH’s agents think his development would be better suited in a stronger league (since he’s too good for the K League right now)? I don’t know, but I trust the player and his camp to have made the best decision for his career. Do know however that there is precedent for instant impact – Bae Jun Ho in the Championship last season comes to mind, but so does Lee Chung Yong, who established himself as one of Bolton Wanderer’s most important players, winning Player of the Year, in his first season at just age 20/21. Yang Min Hyeok may not be quite as technically gifted as Lee Chung Yong but he is certainly a much better finisher – we will see how his first season in Europe turns out. Like Lee Chung Yong’s… or like Kim Ji Soo’s (ok I know Kim Ji Soo hasn’t made his PL breakthrough just yet, but his first season was with the B team and this season he looks set to actually make some Premier League appearances based on his preseason activity… or so I hope).

Kim Byung Ji is expected to hold a Youtube Live stream, either 7/28 or 7/29, where he discusses the whole situation. I will update this post after that happens.

What kind of footballer is YMH? In Korea he draws a lot of comparisons to national team hero Kim Dae Won as well as the recent Gangwon FC export Yang Hyun Jun of Celtic FC. He has personally named Phil Foden and Yang Hyun Jun as his role models (years ago he stated he was a Man City fan). He plays LW or RW, the type that likes to cut in, run at the defense, and take shots. His shooting technique has drawn lots of comparisons to Son Heung Min, as Yang has also scored those curlers into the far post, the type of goal Son nearly exclusively scored during his early days. He is so good at 1v1s – yes it’s the K League, but for an 18 year old to complete multiple dribbles a game is so impressive considering that his national team counterparts can’t put up the kind of statistics that he does. It’s already rare enough for an 18 year old star in the K League, let alone play 90′ minutes almost every game. An ability that Lee Kang In, Bae Jun Ho, and Yang Min Hyeok innately possess is the ability to move the ball forward and consistently beat/dribble past a defender. It’s so satsifying to watch.

I’m sure you guys with any interest in this have already seen the absolute flood of YMH compilations on Youtube. Just posting a few here, though a lot of these have the same clips because again, he only has half a season of professional football under his belt so far mixed in with some U17 national team moments.

As an aside: what an unprecedented time for Korean football. Not only do we have SHM and HHC, two top forwards in the PL, the rising star LKI, a top CB in KMJ, and some serious rising stars like Kim Ji Soo (playing for Brentford’s first team now) and Lee Han Beom in defense… now we got guys like Bae Jun Ho (Stoke City’s best player), Yang Min Hyeok… what a time. All we need is a defensive midfielder (Kwon Hyeok Kyu please…) and good fullbacks and we’re set with a full European based starting XI.