Kim Do-heon Wins K-League MVP

Good ball skills are not enough to bring a sports player to stardom. One still needs some fortune.

This was exactly the case of Kim Do-heon (24, Seongnam Ilhwa). After graduating Tongjin High School in 2001, he joined Suwon Samsung in the pro league but failed to stand out among his teammates. Although he was recognized as a promising midfielder who had skills to lead the team on the pitch with intelligence, the internal competence within the team was too fierce for him, as Suwon was already packed with star players.

But when he was about to overcome his hard time adapting himself to the team, the national star of the 2002 World Cup Kim Nam-il, nicknamed “the vacuum cleaner,” transferred from Jeonnam Dragons to Suwon the following year, blowing up Kim Do-heon’s chance to step into the spotlight. The manager’s coaching style also wasn’t quite suitable for him.

Out of the club of stars and into Seongnam-

For these reasons, he made his decision. In the middle of the 2005 season, he transferred to Seongnam. Immediately, as if he acquired some magical strength, his performance began to vitalize again. In 2005, he played for nine games in Suwon’s jersey and 21 in Seongnam’s. His new manager, Kim Hak-beom’s style, putting emphasis on elaborate passes in the midfield also turned out to be in tune with his style. Increasingly, the pitch was coming under his control.

On December 20, at the Samsung Hauzen 2006 K-League awarding ceremony held at the Papertainer Museum located in Olympic Park at Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Kim Do-heon was selected as the MVP. In a poll conducted by the press corps, Kim had a landslide win, taking 66 out of 71 valid votes. Lee Kwan-woo (Suwon) took second place with three votes. Bringing his team the champion’s trophy in a year and a half, it can be said that Kim had his contribution recognized. The prize money for the MVP is 10 million won.

As a member of the national World Cup team, Kim wasn’t able to spend all of his time this season with the club, but still showed up in 33 games, and recorded eight goals and four assists. It is true that this record isn’t something so splendid. Nevertheless, his role was rather similar to that of a conductor in an orchestra. Itamar Da Silva, Kim’s Brazilian colleague playing in his third K-League team after Jeonnam and Suwon, said, “He is keeping track of all the movements of his teammates. The timing of the passes he gives when I dash towards the goal is second to none.” Manager Kim Hak-beom evaluates Kim Do-heon that “Do-heon knows how to ‘read’ the game. Above all, the timeliness of his passes is outstanding.”

Kim Do-heon said, “If it wasn’t for my coach Kim, I wouldn’t be here.” He says that he was exerting the best of himself because the manager trusted him and recognized his value. Kim Do-heon said, “The manager has an insight to each player’s characteristics. He exactly knows where to place whom. All I did was doing the best I could at the position he offered me.”

In contrast to his outstanding performance in the K-League, Kim didn’t attract much public interest in the national team. Even though he mentioned about himself that he was “in lack of competence,” it was probably due to the former head coach Dick Advocaat’s strategy that concentrated more on defense. Kim wasn’t able to play on the pitch during the World Cup, not a single minute. In the Doha Asian Games, in which he joined the team as a wild card, he did his best but the team ended up only in fourth place.

His dream is to play in Europe. He plans to search for opportunities to play abroad after winning the 2007 K-League championship and the AFC Champions League. “The money isn’t important. For my future as a soccer player, I want to be someone playing in the name of my country, just like Park Ji-sung (Manchester United) and Lee Young-pyo (Tottenham Hotspur),” said Kim.

yjongk@donga.com jaeyuna@donga.com