A number of surprise stars appeared in the K-League scoring race early in the season. Although it is early in the season, each star is attracting fans’ attention with frightening momentum. The K-League’s leading goaltenders are also predicting an exciting race after preheating their own race.
Lee Sang-hun (26, Gangwon FC) is the lone top scorer as of the sixth round. He has scored a whopping seven goals in six matches, scoring 1.17 goals per match. This pace far exceeds the average score of 0.47 goals scored by Joo Min-kyu (34, Ulsan HD), the top scorer last season. Notably, he recently scored multiple goals in two consecutive matches against Daegu FC and Jeonbuk Hyundai.
As Lee did not receive much attention, his performance is all the more remarkable. Lee Sang-hun, who made his professional debut in 2017, had five goals in 2018 when he was with the Jeonnam Dragons, and seven goals in 2022 when he was playing for the Busan I’Park, including the K League 2. However, analysts say that Lee has fully opened his eyes to scoring ability since joining the Gangwon team this year at the behest of Yoon Jeong-hwan. Fans are paying more attention to the pace at which he has been consistently scoring goals in five of the six games.
Lee Sang-hun is not the only one who stands out in the scoring race. Lee Dong-kyung (27, Ulsan), who ranks second with five goals, is not a surprise star, but has shown an unexpected upturn in that he is closer to supporting strikers in his team. Lee has already scored five goals, and he is set to break his career high (six goals) in the 2021 season. For Ulsan, his enlistment at the end of this month is especially regrettable.
Kim Hyun-wook (29) scored four goals side by side, Gabriel (23) from Brazil, and Jeong Jae-hee (30) from Pohang Steelers, who scored three goals each, are also showing better-than-expected performances. After scoring only one to three goals in a season in the K League 2 over the past four seasons, Kim’s scoring ability exploded when he returned to the K League 1 for the first time in five years. He is already tying with his career high when playing for Jeju United in 2018.
Gabriel, who was born in 2001 and recruited by head coach Lee Jung-hyo after seeing the possibility, is also showing the most noticeable rise among foreign strikers, skipping the K-League adaptation period. Jung Jae-hee has three goals in four games since returning from injury, and all three goals are final goals, so he has been reborn as a new troubleshooter leading Pohang’s “Park Tae-ha-ho.”
Strikers representing the K-League are faltering amid the emergence of surprise stars. Joo Min-gyu scored a finishing goal in the opening six rounds, and Thiago (Jeonbuk Hyundai), who missed the top scorer as he played longer than Joo, is also in a slump after transferring to the Major League with one goal in six matches. Cesinha (Daegu FC) remains silent. 룸알바
However, Joo Min-gyu and others, who completed warm-up with the finishing goal, are players who have already proven their scoring ability in the K-League, so they can always hit and score. If star players continue to give a surprise at the beginning of the season, and if existing troubleshooting players revive, the scoring race will become even more exciting. It is also a welcome news that will further ignite the all-time success of the K-League.