Korea on Monday announced their training camp roster for the top Asian men’s football tournament kicking off in January, with domestic leaguers joined by a handful of overseas-based players for a six-day session. The Korea Football Association (KFA) unveiled a 16-player camp roster, with 11 from the K League and five from overseas, ahead of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. The tournament will be played from Jan. 12 to Feb. 10 next year in Qatar, and Korea, coached by Jurgen Klinsmann, will try to win their first title since 1960.
Werner Leuthard, the physical trainer for the national team, and assistant coach Lee Jae-hong will be running the indoor camp at a Seoul hotel from Dec. 26 to 31, with a focus on weight training and conditioning drills. The season for K League players ended earlier this month, while Europe-based players are in the midst of their seasons, putting the two groups at different stages of match readiness.
The five players from foreign leagues are: Cho Gue-sung of FC Midtjylland in Denmark, Lee Jae-sung of Mainz 05 and Jeong Woo-yeong of VfB Stuttgart, both in Germany, Hwang In-beom of Crvena zvezda in Serbia, and Song Bum-keun of Shonan 한국을 Bellmare in Japan. The K League group includes many of the national team mainstays, including Ulsan HD FC defender Kim Young-gwon, the 2023 K League 1 most valuable player, Ulsan goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors defender Kim Jin-su, and Suwon Samsung Bluewings defender Lee Ki-je.
Conspicuous by his absence was Ulsan HD forward Joo Min-kyu, the 2023 K League 1 scoring champion with 17 goals in 36 matches. Joo also led the league in goals in 2021 with 22, and he has scored more goals than any other K League player in the 2021-2023 span with 56. Joo, however, has never played for the national team. Joo’s national team snub under the previous head coach Paulo Bento was a contentious point later during Bento’s time here, and Joo has remained on the outside looking in on Klinsmann’s watch, too.
Joo appeared to have an inside track to a place on the Asian Cup roster, after one of the fixtures on the forward line, Hwang Ui-jo of Nottingham Forest, was suspended indefinitely from international duty in November due to his legal trouble. The KFA said Klinsmann will announce his final 26-man roster — up from 23 players from previous Asian Cups — on Dec. 28. The coach is unlikely to take someone not already on the training camp roster, with other Europe-based stars, such as Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur, Kim Min-jae of Bayern Munich and Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain, virtually assured of their spots.
The national team will travel to Abu Dhabi on Jan. 2 to set up training camp there, and then play a tuneup match against a yet-to-be-determined opponent on Jan. 6.Korea will then hop over to Qatar on Jan. 10.Korea will play Bahrain on Jan. 15, Jordan on Jan. 20 and Malaysia on Jan. 25 in Group E. There are six groups of four nations, and the top two countries from each group, plus four best third-place teams, will reach the knockout stage. During the Jan. 12-Feb. 10 tournament, teams will be asked to register 23 out of their 26 players per match, and the three remaining players must watch from their technical seats
