The Grand Prize Ceremony, which will mark the grand finale of the K-League in the 2024 season, is just one day away. The “Hana Bank K-League 2024 Grand Prize Ceremony” will take place at the Grand Hotel in Switzerland at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
As expected, the best interest is in the direction of the MVP award, the coach award, and the young player award. Attention is focusing on whether Ulsan HD, which has won three consecutive K League 1 titles and opened the door to the dynasty, will dominate the MVP and manager awards again. In 2022, when Ulsan won its first K League 1 championship in 17 years, Lee Chung-yong and Hong Myung-bo won the MVP and managerial awards, respectively. Last year, Kim Young-kwon stood at the top of the list while Hong won the managerial award for the second consecutive year.
The MVP, managerial award, young player award and best 11 are determined through voting by coaches (30 percent), captains (30 percent), and media (40 percent). Voting has already been completed, and only announcements are left. The MVP of the K League 1 is a three-way race between Andersson (Suwon FC), Yang Min-hyuk (Kangwon) and Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan). However, only five times, namely 1999, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2018, he failed to produce an MVP in the K League 1 championship. 먹튀검증
There is a low possibility of an “unexpected event.” Cho is the most promising player. MVP was only for field plays. There was only one time when a goalkeeper was named MVP in the K-League, which was launched in 1983. It was Lee Woon-jae, who led Suwon Samsung to win the title in 2008. Cho is trying to become the MVP for the second time in 16 years as a goalkeeper. “Honestly, I had a lot of expectations last year. (Kim) Young-kwon received the award, but I had a lot of expectations from the beginning this year as well. I did my best in every game, thinking that if I win, I might really get it. I have a lot of expectations because I got a good result. I feel great because I feel like I helped the team even a little bit,” Cho said.
On the other hand, it is not easy to predict the K-League 1 coaching award, which includes Kim Pan-gon (Ulsan Hyundai), Yoon Jeong-hwan (Gangwon Kangwon Hyundai), and Jeong Jeong-yong (Kimcheon). There were only three times when the winning team failed to win the coaching award, in 2005, 2010, and 2020. There is less chance that an unexpected event will happen than the MVP. This year, however, it is very subtle. Kim took the helm of Ulsan in July during the current season, as Hong Myung-bo moved to become the head coach of the national team.
The team was amazing in the K-League. It had nine wins, three draws and one loss in 13 matches, ending a spectacular period. However, the Achilles tendon was limited in number of matches. Coach Kim Pan-gon also seemed to empty his mind, saying, “I have no greed for a prize. Winning is enough. I feel like I have fulfilled my responsibilities.”