Ye-geon Kim is a 16-year-old midfielder who plays for Jeonbuk Hyundai and the South Korean U-17 national team.
Kim is a diminutive attacking midfielder, listed at 5’4” (1.67 m) with a slim build. Generally, Kim sat just off South Korea’s centre-forward. From there, Kim would look to get on the ball and either run at the defence or play a ball in behind the opposition defence. Kim is a particularly adept ball carrier. Kim is extremely fast both on and off the ball. So when he receives the ball in space between the lines, he can move very quickly. Kim is also quite a dynamic dribbler. He is very shifty, and his excellent pace helps to make up for his limited physical power. Sometimes his speed gets the better of him and he takes a big touch which causes him to lose the ball. Overall, though, Kim is a very effective carrier. Kim also has decent vision and is able to beat the last line of defence with through balls reasonably often. However, in the build-up phase, Kim often ends up going backwards. It is mostly in transition that he is a big danger. Kim takes a lot of shots, but these are mostly from outside the box. Using his pace and dribbling to take shots from better locations is going to have to be something he works on in the coming years. If not, his professional future might be in a deeper midfield position.
Kim’s pace and dribbling mean that he wins a lot of fouls. He takes free kicks and set pieces and can put in some dangerous deliveries. Kim showed some decent pressing in this tournament and was reasonably effective defensively despite his small stature.
I am not sure Kim has the offensive juice or the physicality to make it to the top levels of football. But he is really fast and has above-average technical ability. So I could see him playing in a league like Belgium or the Netherlands.
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