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| Hong Hyun-seok headed to the German Bundesliga wearing a Mainz uniform. Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz' Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment. Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing. Photo =Mainz SNS Capture |
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| Hong Hyun-seok headed to the German Bundesliga wearing a Mainz uniform. Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz' Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment. Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing. Photo =Mainz SNS Capture |
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Hong Hyun-suk headed to the German Bundesliga wearing Mainz uniform.
Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz'
Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment.
Mainz director Christian Heidel said 'Hong Hyun-suk is a technically skilled, creative and goal-scoring attacking midfielder who can be used flexibly in various positions. Speed is also a big advantage of him. In the game, he regularly plays hard for the team and passes brilliantly.'
Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing.
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| Hong Hyun-seok headed to the German Bundesliga wearing a Mainz uniform. Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz' Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment. Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing. Photo = Capture Mainz homepage |
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| Hong Hyun-seok headed to the German Bundesliga wearing a Mainz uniform. Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz' Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment. Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing. AFP Yonhap News |
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Hong Hyun-seok, born in 1999, is a former Ulsan HD youth team and has entered the European stage since 2018. Starting with Unterhahing, the German third division, he started to make his name known on the European stage in earnest by wearing the Hent uniform in 2022 after passing through Junior and LASK Linz. Hong Hyun-seok, who started playing for Belgium's prestigious Hent, has become the center of the team with six goals and six assists in 37 official games in the 2022-2023 season. In the 2023-2024 season, he maintained a stable performance as the team's mainstay by scoring five goals and six assists in 30 league games, even though he was absent from the Asian Games and the Asian Cup. Just before the transfer, he already played in three league games and Europa Conference League qualifiers this season.
The Korean national team has also been consistently dispatched. He has been on the national team since June last year and played 12 games. The national team also received good reviews for its midfield resources to succeed Hwang In-beom and Lee Jae-sung.
Hong Hyun-seok had not hidden his dream of moving to the big leagues in the past. Hong Hyun-seok, who has benefited from military service through the Asian Games, said in an interview in October last year that `The goal has been to become one of the top five European leagues. After winning the gold medal, a good opportunity came, but I don't think I'm going to go to a good league just because I'm exempted from the military, so I think the future will be more important"I played in the German third division when I was young, so I'm familiar with the German stage and I want to try again."
Mainz, where Hong Hyun-seok is scheduled to join, is already a team where key midfielder Lee Jae-sung of the Korean national team is active. Lee Jae-sung is one of the main players of the team, which moved to Mainz in 2021 and has already played 99 games. Lee Jae-sung played with six goals and four assists in 31 games last season. Mainz is a familiar club to Korean fans, with several Korean players besides Lee Jae-sung. Cha Du-ri, Park Joo-ho, Koo Ja-cheol and Ji Dong-won have played active roles. If Hong Hyun-seok joins, he will become the sixth Korean player for Mainz and play as the fourth active Bundesliga player along with Lee Jae-sung, Kim Min-jae and Jung Woo-young.
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| Hong Hyun-seok headed to the German Bundesliga wearing a Mainz uniform. Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz' Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment. Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing. Photo =Mainz SNS Capture |
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| Hong Hyun-seok headed to the German Bundesliga wearing a Mainz uniform. Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz' Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment. Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing. AFP Yonhap News |
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In the beginning, Hong Hyun-seok was not likely to transfer to Mainz. It was more like a transfer to Turkiye. The Turkiye transfer has gained momentum. Fans raised suspicions that there was pressure from the club or agent, not Hong Hyun-seok's intention, as it was news that a player who wanted to transfer to the big league was about to transfer to Turkiye. Hong Hyun-suk drew a clear line on the controversy. On his personal SNS, he posted his own official, saying, `I asked him to go because I wanted to go.' Even Hong Hyun-seok's direct mention of the transfer appeared, and it seemed as if his trip to Turkey would be completed this summer.
However, Hong Hyun-seok's trip to Turkey hit a rock at the last minute. During the negotiations with Trabzonspor, he suffered from buyouts and tax issues. The biggest problem was the buyout. Hong Hyun-seok, who did not think the Turkiye stage was the end, wanted a small buyout to facilitate future transfers. While Trabzonspor offered a buyout amount of 12 million euros (about 17.8 billion won), Hong Hyun-seok reportedly offered 6 million euros, similar to the transfer fee. In the end, the negotiations, which were shaken by the buyout issue, failed to conclude and drifted away.
Since then, news about Hong Hyun-seok's transfer to Mainz has been poured out from the German media, including kickers, and the situation has been reversed. The kicker said the transfer of Hong Hyun-suk is scheduled to be announced on Thursday, adding that the next transfer is also being finalized after Moritz Yentz signed a one-year loan deal with Mainz. South Korea's national team Hong Hyun-suk will move from Hent to Mainz. Hong also missed Wednesday's Europa Conference League playoff round. Mainz has already completed all the procedures. Hong Hyun-seok's transfer fee is 4 million euros (about 5.9 billion won)', he said, announcing the news of Hong Hyun-seok going to Mainz.
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| Hong Hyun-seok headed to the German Bundesliga wearing a Mainz uniform. Mainz announced the recruitment on the club's website on the 29th (Korea Standard Time), saying 'Hong Hyun-seok has become a player for Mainz' Mainz says 'Now Mainz has another Korean national team player. Hong Hyun Suk came to Mainz from Hent. He signed a long-term contract with Mainz until 2028' and welcomed Hong Hyun-seok's recruitment. Regarding his feelings about joining Mainz, Hong Hyun-seok said, `It was my dream to play in the Bundesliga, one of the world's largest leagues.' `Before my transfer, I talked to Jae-sung Lee on the phone and liked him very much. Mainz welcomed me, too. I'm most comfortable when I play the role of a playmaker with the ball on my feet. I'm looking forward to the next phase of my career. Mainz and Mainz fans are amazing. AFP Yonhap News |
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In addition to kicker, other German media also reported on Hong Hyun-seok's transfer to Mainz. The German version of Sky Sports in Germany 'Mainz is about to recruit Hong Hyun-suk. Hong Hyun-suk can play as a central and offensive midfielder. Having scored seven goals and eight assists last season, he will move from Hent. Hong Hyun-suk's transfer fee, which was scheduled to expire in 2025, will amount to 6 million euros (about 8.9 billion won)'He predicted a higher transfer fee than a kicker. Hong Hyun-seok's transfer fee is expected to be between at least 4 million euros and 6 million euros, including bonuses.
Hong Hyun-seok's big league debut is imminent due to his dream transfer to the Bundesliga. Attention is also focusing on how he will perform on the German stage with Lee Jae-sung.
digh1229@sportschosun.com
