Ki Sung-yueng expresses his feelings on Mallorca website

Ki Sung-yueng (31) who joined the Spanish football league La Liga, the league of dreams, is staying at home after making his first debut. La Liga has been suspended indefinitely as the COVID-19 crisis in Spain aggravated every day. It is still unknown whether he could play again for RCD Mallorca as his contract with the team ends in late June.

“We’re training at home and as you know, this situation in Spain has become very serious and a lot of people are infected by Covid-19. Of course, it’s very difficult for us to stay at home not being able to train, but the priority is to be fit and healthy before you play football. We have to follow the rules,” Ki said Tuesday on the La Liga website. “The team gave us an individual schedule and programmes. There is not much equipment at home, so we have to do a basic programme and hopefully this situation ends quickly so we can train and play the games.”

As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, Spain had the third largest number of COVID-19 patients (85,159) after the U.S. and Italy. The South Korean midfielder may be anxious as he successfully made his debut in a visiting match against Eibar on March 7. There were a lot of expectations for him who is often called as “a pass master,” but the virus became a ball and chain around the ankle.

Players of FC Barcelona including Lionel Messi (33) agreed to a salary cut to overcome the crisis. “Most of the board and players agreed to a salary cut until the situation gets better,” FC Barcelona announced on the website.

Salaries of La Liga players will be cut by some 70 percent compared to the original amount agreed upon before the season. But staff will receive 100 percent of their salary. “Our players and coaching staff agreed to cut salaries,” Messi wrote at his SNS account. “We hope this decision could guarantee the salary of other staff.”


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