Ho-Yeon Jung is a 24-year-old midfielder who plays for Gwangju FC in the K-League. Jung began playing for Gwangju, then in K2, after graduating from South Korea’s university system in 2022. He has made his senior debut for the South Korean national team and won a gold medal at the 2022 Asian Games, exempting him from military service.
Jung generally plays in a double pivot for Gwangju but in practice, he plays more like an aggressive #8. He usually occupies space further forward or drifts out to the wings during the build-up. He isn’t the biggest at 5’9 (1.8M) but he plays with a lot of physicality. He jumps high to press opponents and is an effective disruptor of the opponent’s early build-up phase. However, Jung isn’t quite as effective when he needs to defend in his own half. If he has to move backwards to defend instead of closing down opponents then he is not the strongest defender.
On the ball, Jung is primarily a ball carrier. He is good at carrying the ball into space quickly. He has good pivot strength and is good at receiving the ball with a player on his back and turning against them. However, he is not very consistent at beating players when he is running at them. He is, however, really good at winning fouls through his dribbling. His passing is also a little bit inconsistent. He can break lines and pull off some spectacular through-balls. But he also misplaces quite a lot of passes. So, all in all, Jung is a player who can progress the ball but is not very ball-secure. In the final 3rd he does not have that much juice. He doesn’t get many shots and his passing usually isn’t into areas where teammates are shooting from. This might change if he played in a three-man midfield and had more freedom to get forward. But even still, his zone moving is probably always going to be more enticing than his final 3rd impact.
Jung is not super young and he has some limitations so it’s unlikely he will reach the top of world football. But he’s a very solid player at the K-League level and could probably handle a small step up. He could play for a sub-top team in European leagues outside the top 5.
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