The individual title was also confirmed as the regular league of Hana Bank’s K League 1 2024, which had been turbulent, ended after 38 rounds.
The award went to Montenegrin striker Mugosa. Mugosa suffered a injury sustained by Incheon goalkeeper Lee Bum-soo in the final match of the season against Daegu held at DGB Daegu Bank Park on Monday, but his strong rival Ilyuchenko (14 goals) was absent due to cumulative warnings in the final match, and Yago (13 goals) only added one goal, thus maintaining the top spot with 15 goals (38 matches). This year’s top scorer, Leith, was a bit bland, as he also topped the list with 15 goals. His 15 goals is the lowest number of goals scored in a decade since Santos (14 goals at the time) in 2014. Mugosa scored 0.39 goals per game, which is the lowest scoring rate in 32 years since Lim Geun-jae (0.33 goals at the time) in 1992. This is proof that no outstanding goalscorer has appeared this year. Considering that Mugosa, Ilyuchenko, Cesinha (11 goals in Daegu) and Joo Min-kyu (Ulsan, 10 goals) were included in the top 10 scorers, it was a season in which the expression “gugwan is a mastermind.” Mugosa is a foreign scorer who has appeared for the first time in four years.
Various records were set for the first time. It is the first time in seven seasons that Mugosa, who joined Incheon in 2018 and has always worn Incheon’s dark red jersey, has won the K-League Scoring Award. It is the first time in 10 years since Mugosa won the Scoring Award by scoring 15 goals in the first division of Montenegro in the 2013-2014 season when he played for OFK Titograd, and he is the second Montenegro native to win the Scoring Award for three consecutive seasons in Seoul in the 2011-2013 season. Above all, Mugosa became the first “sad top scorer” produced by a relegation team in the history of the K-League. After Incheon was directly demoted to the bottom, the words “I hope we can trade for the top scorer for the rest” resonated with Incheon fans.
Coincidentally, 메이저놀이터 the top-ranked team failed to produce both the scoring award and the assist award this season. With 13 assists, Andersson of Suwon FC, ranking fifth in the league, has become the best helper by beating Kim Dae-won (Kim Cheon) and Cesinha (Daegu FC), ranking second, by five points. Andersson, who showed off his “crack” side perfectly in his first year in the K-League, added seven goals to score the most points (20). Based on his stellar performance, he was selected as the final three candidates for the K-League Most Valuable Player Award along with Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan) and Yang Min-hyuk (Gangwon).
In addition, by detailed statistics, Kim Joon-hong (Jeonbuk) recorded the most clean sheets (15), Cesinha the most shots (105), Lee Ki-hyuk (Gangwon) the most passes (2,057), Yang Min-hyuk the most key passes (31), Yoon Bit-garam (Suwon FC) the most direct free-kick attempts (16), Kim Bong-soo (Kim Chun) played the most field players (3405 minutes), Wandelson (Pohang) the most tackles (55), Yuri Jonathan (Jeju) the most successful aerial ball match (166), and Cho Hyun-woo (74.2 percent, based on 19 or more games), respectively, showing outstanding performance in each field.