Veteran striker Lee Dong-gook of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors was voted the MVP of South Korean professional football on Monday.

The 35-year-old garnered 101 out of 112 votes to claim the top individual award in the first-division K League Classic, easily beating out FC Seoul defensive back Cha Du-ri, with six votes, and Suwon forward Santos, who had five.

Lee finished second in the league to Santos with 13 goals and helped Jeonbuk win its third championship in six seasons.

Lee became the first player in the league’s 31-year history to win three MVPs. 

He’d earlier captured the MVP trophy in 2009 and 2011. Jeonbuk won championships in both of those seasons.

Lee’s head coach, Choi Kang-hee, was voted the Coach of the Year. He is the third coach to win the award three times, having earlier captured the honors in 2009 and 2011.

Lee and Choi are the first player-coach tandem to win the MVP and the Coach of the Year honors in three different seasons.

Pohang’s second-year forward Kim Seung-dae was the Young Player of the Year with 78 out of 112 votes, getting past Jeonbuk’s rookie midfielder Lee Jae-sung, who had 28, and Chunnam’s first-year midfielder An Yong-woo, who earned six.

Kim Seung-dae scored 10 goals to lead all candidates.

The Young Player award was presented for the second time, after replacing the more conventional Rookie of the Year last season. Candidates must be South Koreans 23 or younger and must have played in at least half of their team’s games this year.

Candidates also must not have played more than three seasons in the K League Classic.

Kim is the second straight winner from Pohang, after the inaugural winner Ko Mu-yeol. (Yonhap) 


League to retain same format

The national governing body of professional football said Monday it will retain the same structure for the top-flight competition next season, with clubs to be divided into two tiers in the fall.

The K League said the 12 teams in the first-division K League Classic will each play 38 matches.

They will first play 33 games from March 7 to Oct. 4, and then they will be split into the upper tier, or Group A, and the lower tier, or Group B, based on their records at that point.

Teams will then play five more matches within their group from Oct. 17 to Nov. 29.

“As long as the number of clubs in the K League Classic doesn’t change, this structure will remain in place,” the league office said in a statement.

As was the case this year, the last-ranked K League Classic club will be relegated to the second-division K League Challenge in 2016.

The first-place club from the K League Challenge will be promoted to the first division. (Yonhap) 


Ulsan Hyundai names new boss

South Korean football club Ulsan Hyundai on Monday named ex-J-League head coach Yoon Jung-hwan as its new bench boss.

Yoon, 41, replaces Jo Min-gook, who stepped down Sunday after Ulsan finished sixth among 12 teams in the first-division K League Classic in his first season.

Yoon will be making his coaching debut in South Korea after guiding Sagan Tosu in the top Japanese competition from January 2011 to August this year.

In Yoon’s first season, Sagan Tosu finished second in the second division and earned its first-ever promotion to the top division.

Through Ulsan, Yoon said he will try to turn the fortunes around for the underachieving club.

“Even as I was coaching in Japan, I’d always had the K League on my mind,” Yoon said. “It’s a great honor to be Ulsan’s head coach. With this club, I’d like to bring a breath of fresh air to the rest of the league.”

Yoon, a playmaking midfielder in his playing days, represented South Korea at the 1996 Olympics and the 1998 Asian Games.

He was also a member of South Korea’s World Cup squad in 2002, when the country made a historic run to the semifinals, but he didn’t appear in any of the team’s seven games. (Yonhap)