Jeonbuk Hyundai is the representative team that ranked at the bottom of the domestic professional football in the 2024 season even after spending a lot of money.
Jeonbuk spends 20.45 billion won (approx. It ranks second, slightly behind Ulsan HD (204.9 billion won). Last year is the first time that Jeonbuk has withdrawn from the top of its annual salary list since 2014 when the company made public its annual salary announcement.
Jeonbuk stayed 10th out of the 12 teams in the final standings last season. It narrowly won the relegation playoff and stayed put. It was almost the same as Ulsan in terms of total annual expenditure, but Jeonbuk avoided relegation while Ulsan won the championship.
The average annual salary of a foreign player in Jeonbuk is 1.23 billion won (approx. He ranks first overall, higher than those of Ulsan (980 million won or 1.09 billion won or 2.90 million won or 4.31 million dollars). However, no foreign player has paid a ransom. Striker Thiago stayed at the 17th place (seven goals) in the score rankings. Midfielder Boateng played 21 matches, but has no offensive point. Hernandez had two goals and two assists in 14 matches, and Andrigo had only three goals and two assists in 15 matches. The Korean government needs to consider efficiency of supply and demand of foreign players, which governs farming every year.
Jeonbuk's average annual salary for Korean players is 326 billion won. It ranks second after Ulsan (520 million won), but the amount of money difference is quite large. This is because Jeonbuk has the largest number of players at 50.1, while Ulsan has the smallest number at 3.42. Jeonbuk is running Team B and recruited several big fish players last year to escape the relegation zone. After all, the performance of Jeonbuk's domestic players is not as great as the average annual salary difference of 200 million won compared to Ulsan's domestic players. Veteran players with high pay have not been able to play their part in both performance and teamwork.
Jeonbuk has appointed Coach Gus Foye of Uruguay, who was mentioned as a candidate for the leadership of the Korean men's national team last year. Although he failed to serve as a coach twice recently, he chose to serve as a coach again because of Foye's capability and reputation. Jeonbuk has strong pride and individuality along with Ulsan and Seoul. The team needs a coach worthy of his name in order to control the players with high standards.
When a new coach takes office in any team, the first thing that teams do is to clean up their veterans. It is the process of ferreting out veterans who are willing to make sacrifices for their teams while obeying the new coach. Last year, 안전놀이터 captaincy defender Kim Jin-soo (33) recently moved to Seoul. Striker Moon Seon-min, who is the same age, has also completed his journey with Jeonbuk. Not a few other players have left the team and are expected to leave soon. In the meantime, Song Bum-keun, the goalkeeper of the Korean national team who had to leave Jeonbuk as technical director of Park Ji-sung, returned to Jeonbuk. Jeonbuk is expected to end supply and demand of players by recruiting high-priced veterans and foreigners and only recruiting a few players who are absolutely necessary.