‘Queen of handball’ Ryu Eun-hee returns to domestic league

Ryu Eun-hee, a.k.a. the empress of handball, has returned to the South Korean professional handball league after serving as the greatest contributor to Busan Infrastructure Corporation’s first-ever winning of the championship title and later spending a few years in Europe. The Korea Handball Association announced that she came back to South Korea to make a return to the domestic league.

With the closing of the 2018-2019 Women's Handball Korea League, Ryu transferred to the Paris 92 in France and made a successful debut. With a total of 71 goals in the regular season, she ranked 14th in the league and was selected as the player of the month in February 2019. As the previous season closed earlier than usual in France in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, she came back to the home country in March and continued to get trained before leaving for France in July. In the 2020-2021 French league that opened in September, she attained as many as 17 goals by the fourth round, making contributions to the team’s 3rd ranking among the 14 teams. However, she had to decide to come back home as the daily number of confirmed cases within France reached hundreds of thousands.

Ryu belongs to Busan Infrastructure Corporation where she would play before flying to France. “Ryu has just signed a one-year contract guaranteeing benefits and compensations of the highest levels in the domestic league. When she comes back from self-quarantine, she joins the team early next month. She starts playing in the second round,” said coaching staff Kang Jae-won of Busan Infrastructure Corporation. 　

Busan Infrastructure Corporation has aggressively strengthened its capabilities over the off-season period by equipping the team with a total of two overseas players. With Ryu joining the crew, the club expects to get closer to the championship title in two years. The 2020-2021 Women's Handball Korea League opens on November 27.


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com