Cho Hyun-woo (33, Ulsan HD) will challenge for the “best star” of the K League 1 this season. The prevailing assessment is that he has the most important condition of winning the title and has fully proved his eligibility for MVP through his performance throughout the season.
Cho is considered the biggest contributor to Ulsan’s K-League 1 victory. He is the only player who played in all league matches (37 goals lost) in Ulsan through the 36th round. The team played 14 matches without allowing a single goal. It ranks second in clean sheet after Kim Joon-hong (15 matches in Hyundai, North Jeolla Province). He is also the best among goalkeepers in the league in terms of defense percentage and ratings.
In many games, the team was saved from the crisis of losing points with decisive saves. Ulsan’s frequent changes in its defense line this season mean that the defense was a little unstable, but Cho Hyun-woo played a big role in recording the minimum number of runs along with the victory.
In fact, 14 of Ulsan’s 20 wins were decided by a single goal. Thanks to Cho Hyun-woo’s good defense, there were many matches that secured three valuable points or even a draw in a game that could have been lost. The fact that he was selected as the Man of the Match (MOM) five times, despite being a goalkeeper who is difficult to draw attention, also suggests a lot. Of the 15 players who won MOM more than four times in K League 1 this season, Cho Hyun-woo is the only goalkeeper.
In fact, there is no clear competitor. With MVP coming from the winning team for the last four consecutive seasons, there is no candidate inside Ulsan to compete internally with Cho Hyun-woo. The same goes for other team candidates who have performed sensationally enough to erase the winning premium. This is the background that attention is focused on Cho Hyun-woo’s possibility of winning the prize. 스포츠토토
Cho Hyun-woo, who was unable to reach the MVP even after playing the leading role in the K League 1 for three consecutive years, is also full of will this year. “Honestly, I had a lot of expectations last year,” he said smiling, “I did my best from the beginning, thinking, ‘If I win, I can get it.’ I have a lot of expectations as I got a good result (winning).”
If Cho Hyun-woo wins the MVP award, he will be the second goalkeeper in 16 years since Lee Woon-jae (then Suwon Samsung) in 2008 and the second in the K-League’s 41-year history. Lee Woon-jae was honored with a overwhelming vote (72 out of 93) by leading Suwon’s two-time K-League and League Cup winners at the time. Ulsan will challenge to produce MVP for three consecutive years, following Lee Chung-yong in 2022 and Kim Young-kwon in 2023.
Individual awards such as MVP will be determined through manager, captain, and media voting. If each club submits a candidate by the 12th, the final candidate will be decided through the individual award selection committee, and voting will be held for five days from the 20th of this month. The K-League Grand Prize ceremony will be held on the 29th.