The 5th “K League Dream Association,” a one-on-one mentoring program joined by the foundation K-League Association (Chairman Kwak Young-jin, hereinafter referred to as “Keirig Association”) and the Korea Professional Football Federation (President Kwon Oh-gap, hereinafter referred to as the “Federation”) and HD Hyundai Oilbank, the official sponsor of the K-League, held a soccer camp for three nights and four days from the 18th to the 21st of this month in Tokyo, Japan.
K-League Dream Association is a program in which former and current K-League and WK-League players conduct one-on-one mentoring throughout the year for young people who dream of becoming professional soccer players, launched in 2020 and marks their fifth year this year. HD Hyundai Oilbank and the Federation will support the entire mentoring program, and Adidas will support soccer products.
The Japanese soccer camp was designed to help mentees gain various experiences while experiencing overseas soccer culture firsthand, and to increase motivation through this. With three mentors including Cho Won-hee, Lee Yoon-pyo and Kim Jung-bin, and 13 mentees participating in the camp, they held friendly matches with FC Gabe youth players based in Godaira, near Tokyo, Kawasaki Frontale vs. Gamba Osaka in the J1 League, watching Kashiwa Reysol vs. Machida Zelvia, and special mentor soccer lessons.
In particular, Jung Sung-ryong, a former national team player and who played in Pohang, Seongnam and Suwon in the K-League, added meaning to this soccer camp by joining in the field. Jung Sung-ryong not only invited mentees to the game of Kawasaki Frontale, where he plays as the main goalkeeper, but also helped the soccer camp in both ways by providing soccer lessons, various gifts, and soccer advice for the mentees.
After mentoring, Jung Sung-ryong said, “I was grateful that my 5th K-League Dream Association friends came all the way to Japan to support me, and I was happy to play soccer together. In the future, I hope mentees will learn well from their mentors and play soccer with fun as they did in this soccer camp.”
Lee Yoon-pyo, who has been a mentor since the first term of the K-League Dream Association, said, “This soccer camp was a meaningful and enjoyable time for mentors as well as mentees. Thank you to all the officials who joined this camp.” 스포츠토토
Menti Kim Si-hoon, a student who participated in the last soccer camp, said, “I was so excited about this soccer camp because it was my first time coming out overseas, but I was so satisfied with playing against overseas teams and watching J1 League games. I am grateful to the officials for the valuable experience.”
Meanwhile, K-League Dream Association has provided mentoring to a total of 87 promising soccer players from the 1st to the 5th term. Through this, mentees are achieving results by joining youth teams under the K-League or being selected for the national team by age. This year’s 5th K-League Dream Association will be joined by 25 mentors including CEO Cho Won-hee, Kim Ho-nam, Kwon Soon-hyung and Kim Yong-dae, and 26 mentors will hold a completion ceremony in December.