Yang Min-hyeok makes an attempt a shot throughout a Coupang Play Collection match towards Tottenham Hotspur at Seoul World Cup Stadium, July 31. Yonhap
Premier League-bound teen sensation Yang Min-hyeok was named to the Korean males’s nationwide crew for upcoming World Cup qualifying matches on Monday.
Head coach Hong Myung-bo put Yang, the 18-year-old ahead for Gangwon FC, on his 26-man squad for 2 World Cup qualifying matches scheduled for subsequent month.
To kick off Group B motion within the third spherical of the Asian qualifying marketing campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, South Korea will host Palestine at Seoul World Cup Stadium at 8 p.m. on Sept. 5. They’ll then play Oman at Sultan Qaboos Sports activities Advanced in Muscat at 6 p.m. on Sept. 10 native time, or 11 p.m. the identical night time in Korea.
Yang has emerged as the highest younger participant within the Okay League 1 this 12 months, main all first-year gamers with eight targets and 5 assists and pushing Gangwon to first place within the 12-team league. In July, he signed for Tottenham Hotspur, turning into the youngest Korean participant to hitch a Premier League facet. Yang will end his South Korean season after which be a part of Spurs in January subsequent 12 months.
At 18 years and 137 days previous, Yang is the Thirteenth-youngest participant to be named to the boys’s nationwide crew.
Yang was not too long ago voted the Okay League 1’s Participant of the Month for July. Hong mentioned Yang might need slowed a bit in August, but it surely wasn’t sufficient to vary his thoughts concerning the teenager.
“I feel he has accomplished sufficient this season to deserve a spot on the nationwide crew,” Hong mentioned Monday on the press convention saying the squad on the Korea Soccer Affiliation Home in Seoul. “His physique of labor for this season speaks for itself, and I feel this was the proper time to provide him this chance. Lots of people have excessive expectations of him, and I hope he can do some good issues for us right here. And it is as much as him to maintain incomes these probabilities.”
Yang is one in every of 4 first-time alternatives, alongside along with his Gangwon teammate Hwang Moon-gi, FC Midtjylland defender Lee Han-beom and Incheon United defender Choi Woo-jin.
Normal suspects embody Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur, captain for each his Premier League membership and the nationwide crew, and Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain, who has scored in every of the French membership’s first two matches of the younger season. Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae and Mainz 05 midfielder Lee Jae-sung had been additionally known as up.
Hong Myung-bo, head coach of the Korean males’s nationwide soccer crew, speaks at a press convention on the Korea Soccer Affiliation Home in Jongno District, Seoul, Aug. 26. Yonhap
By mixing youth with a veteran presence, Hong mentioned he was attempting to attain a fragile stability.
“The largest key to this crew is to make sure some stability from earlier iterations of the crew whereas additionally bringing some modifications,” Hong mentioned. “I needed to create an surroundings the place younger and inexperienced gamers can come into the nationwide crew setting at any second and get into matches. To try this, they should practice with the remainder of the veterans and construct relationships.”
Of the 26 gamers, 14 ply their commerce abroad.
The Oman match will probably be Hong’s first match on his second tour of obligation because the nationwide crew head coach.
There are three teams of six within the third spherical, and the highest two nations from every group will qualify for the World Cup, whereas the groups ranked third and fourth will advance to the fourth spherical for one more crack on the large match.
The 2026 World Cup would be the first expanded version, with 48 international locations set to compete, up from the earlier 32. Hong predicted that whereas it is going to be barely simpler to qualify out of Asia than previously, with extra slots obtainable, reaching the knockout section on the match correct will show more difficult.
“We needed to take care of stability but in addition keep watch over the way forward for the nationwide crew,” Hong defined. “And that is how I’m going to function the nationwide crew transferring ahead.”
Along with Palestine and Oman, Korea will face Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait in Group B.
Korea have performed at each World Cup since 1986. (Yonhap)
