Ex-soccer player banned for life busted for kidnapping

A former member of the national soccer team who received a lifetime ban from the sport last year for match fixing has been arrested on the charge of kidnapping a woman, police in Seoul`s Gangnam district said Tuesday.

Kim Dong-hyun, 28, and former pro baseballer Yoon Chan-soo, 26, were taken into custody for kidnapping a 45-year-old woman with a knife at a basement parking lot of a villa in Seoul`s Cheongdam-dong neighborhood around 2:20 a.m. Saturday.

Police said the two men chased the woman, who was driving a Mercedes Benz, took valuables from the car and then kidnapped her. Yoon followed Kim, who was driving the victim`s vehicle after forcing her into the car, by driving a car he stole at a nearby movie theater.

The woman opened the door and escaped when Kim was driving the car slowly in front of Gangnam ward office. To avoid recapture, she immediately hailed a passing taxi and had the cab driver follow Kim and Yoon. She also reported the incident to police at this point.

Yoon deserted the Benz and escaped, but was caught at a police checkpoint some 20 minutes after the kidnapping occurred. Kim was arrested while hanging around Gangnam Police Station around 5 a.m. to see what happened to Yoon, who was caught earlier.

Police say Kim borrowed some 100 million won (85,000 U.S. dollars) from a financial institution after getting his lifetime ban from the Korea Football Association due to his involvement in the match-rigging scandal last year, and then launched a business. He started falling behind in interest payments for the investment, however, and he planned a kidnapping.

Yoon, who had trouble making ends meet after being cut from a pro baseball team for poor play last year, agreed to join the plot at Kim`s suggestion. Kim was Yoon`s senior when they were affiliated with a military athletic unit.

Police say the two meticulously planned the kidnapping before committing the crime, considering that they moved around the upscale neighborhood of Cheongdam-dong for nearly four hours to find a target, and prepared duct tape to tie up the victim.

Named the top player of the 2002 Asian Youth Soccer Championship, Kim joined Oita of the J-League in August 2003. After making Korea`s national soccer team in 2004, he played in six international games and even scored in an exhibition match versus Ghana in October 2006.

He then played in pro leagues in Portugal and Russia afterwards, but returned to Korea due to difficulty adapting to being on foreign teams. He then failed to display a good performance on the field.

While playing in 2010 for Sangmu, the team of the military athletic unit, he was implicated in the rigging of eight games in the K-League and cup competitions in 2010. He received last year a prison sentence of three years with a five-year stay of execution.

The player reportedly pocketed more than 400 million won (340,000 dollars) through the scandal, directly buying sports lottery tickets and bribing players in person.

A Sangmu source said, “He was an athlete with good talent but took the path of failure since his involvement in the match-fixing scandal,” expressing regret over Kim.

jikim@donga.com