Pillar of Handball Overseas

Baek Won-Cheol (25), ace Center Back of national handball team advanced to Switzerland League.

Contributed toward a championship of his team in the national sports festival held in Jeju this month, Baek Won-Cheol left Korea to join Pardy Winterthur of Switzerland League on November 27.

He made a contract provided that he received 55,000 franc(approx. KRW 4.5 million) for 6 months and plan to move to Germany League of Top Class or Spain League after adapting in Switzerland in Europe.

His overseas advance is the thirteenth among all handball players. Since Gang Jae-Won advanced to Switzerland League in 1989, many handball players have advanced overseas.

In the Switzerland League, three Korean handball players such as Lee Seok-Heyong(GK), Jo Chi-Hyo(left hand FW) and Hwangbo Seongil have participated in.

Also, Yun Gyeong-Shin has played with Choi Hyeon-Ho in the Germany League, and Kim Seong-Heyon has played in the Spain League. In addition, two handball players have participated in the Japan League.

Increasing overseas advance of Korean handball players is caused by a poor situation of Korean handball.

The handball team of Korea won the gold medals in Busan Asian Games (5 consecutive wins of gold medals for the man & 4 consecutive wins of gold medals for the woman). However, the handball is not popular in Korea. In particular, there are only 3 business handball teams of Doosan, Chungcheong Hana Bank, Corosa for men. So, the overseas advance of ace players is inevitable.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com