Retired Korea international Yoo Sang-chul, who used to play for Yokohama F.Marinos and Kashiwa Reysol, looked back on his time in the J.League in an interview on Korean television MBC Plus, where he noted Japan’s football development when he moved to the country in 1999.
Yoo started his career with Ulsan Hyundai in 1994 and represented South Korea in the 1998 World Cup. The central midfielder joined Yokohama F.Marinos in 1999, and in his first season, made 22 appearances and scored seven goals. His second season saw a return of 17 goals in 22 matches. He moved to Kashiwa Reysol in 2001 (9 goals in 24 matches) and helped South Korea to a top four finish in the 2002 World Cup. After the tournament, Yoo returned to play for Ulsan before resuming his career with Yokohama. A defensive midfielder by trade, he was best known for his versatility and could play in any position, from a defender to a forward.
The Korean legend recounted his time playing in the J.League, which became a full-fledged professional league in 1993, six years later than Korea. “I won’t forget the first time I went to Japan. The football environment was so different from Korea,” he said.
“There was a fitness coach, something I’ve never heard of until I came to Japan. And most of the J.League clubs had a youth team. It was an environment where the footballers were able to focus sorely on football.”
Yoo continued and spoke about an incident that still sticks with him.
“There was a fitness coach at Yokohama F.Marinos when I joined in 1999. I managed my own physical conditioning and was not used to having such a coach, so I didn’t listen to what he said. Back then, the training intensity in the J.League was lower than the K League. Everyday in training, I was told by the fitness coach, ‘Concentrate on the team training if you want to show your best performance in actual games.'”
His pride as a Korea international then got in the way of him heeding that advice, and he would regret it.
“I suffered an injury a few days later. The fitness coach came over and said, ‘I knew this would happen. That’s why I stopped practices after training.’ From then on, I listened to him unconditionally (laughs).”
That experience saw Yoo erupt in his second year at Yokohama, where he netted 17 goals and contributed to the team winning the J.League first stage. He began to recognise the J.League’s progressiveness when the South Korea national team and K League clubs started to move towards the same development.
“The South Korea national team did not have the concept of a fitness coach until Gus Hiddink brought on Raymond Verheijen in 2002. And Korean clubs finally realised the same need from 2002. Only then did I felt that the J.League had the footballing system in place.”
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Source: Yahoo
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