Season Review, Part 15: Kang Hyeon-je, a Round MVP Debut and a Summer on the Edge of the Squad

Part 14 covered Carius, whose return on the left changed the shape of Seoul’s attack. Part 15 is one of the players that change moved aside. Kang Hyeon-je started ten of Seoul’s first eleven matches after his debut and has played less than half an hour of league football since the World Cup break.

The season in one paragraph

Kang arrived from Pohang in late December, a 23-year-old attacking midfielder with a reputation for big moments: the clinching goal in extra time of the 2024 Korea Cup final, and a stoppage-time winner at Gwangju in 2025. He said his target was ten goal involvements and that he wanted to be remembered as a player who helped the club go up. He did not play in the first four rounds, then made his Seoul debut at Daegu in Round 5 and was the best player on the pitch: a goal, an assist, the league’s Round 5 MVP award and a place in the Round Best XI. He started every match from Round 5 to Round 15 except the loss at Chungnam Asan, where he came off the bench, usually on the right of the front three, once at right wing-back. He added an assist against Gimpo in Round 10. After the break, Kim Do-gyun moved to a back four, Carius came back into the side, Ahn Joo-wan emerged on the wing, and Kang went from starter to spare part: three short substitute appearances, six matches out of the squad, and unused on the bench for the last two.

By the numbers

	2025 (Pohang, K League 1)	2026 (through Round 27)
Appearances, starts	13, 2	14, 10
Minutes	330	736
Goals	1	1
Assists	1	2
Shots, on target		16, 8
Chances created		8
Successful dribbles		1 of about 9
Duels won		16, at 49 percent
Aerial duels won		6, at 67 percent
Touches in the opposition box		34
Fouls committed		1
Yellow cards		1
Round MVP		1 (Round 5)

All three of his goal involvements came in his first six appearances. He has not had one in the eight since.

What he has done well

The debut. Seoul went to Daegu in late March with four points from four matches and without Euller, Osmar, Byun Kyung-jun and Carius. On 14 minutes a corner broke loose, Kim Oh-kyu headed the ball down in the six-yard box, and Kang struck it into the top right corner. Fifteen minutes later he beat his man on the right and cut the ball back for Iredale to finish. Seoul won 3-1, the league named him Round 5 MVP and put him in its Best XI, and Seoul were named the team of the round. Kim Do-gyun said afterward that the players had carried the weight of a poor start and he wanted to praise all of them. It was the first of four straight wins.

He fit the spring system. In the side that won four straight, Kang was the right-sided forward who ran the channel, pressed the center back and made room for others. The site’s digest from the Suwon FC win in Round 6 noted his dummy in the move that set Oh In-pyo free for Lee Ju-hyeok’s opener. Against Gimpo in Round 10, Euller won the ball on halfway, found him running down the right, and Kang slid the pass into Park Chang-hwan’s run for the first goal. At Gwangyang in Round 14 he had Seoul’s best chance of the first half, through on goal, and Yoo Ji-ha blocked it on the line. When Kim Oh-kyu was out against Seongnam in Round 13, he played the whole of his 67 minutes at right wing-back and Seoul won 3-1.

He does not cost the team anything. One foul committed all season. His pass completion is 78 percent and six of his seven long balls found a teammate. He was booked once, at Daegu. For a player whose job in the spring was to press, run and leave the pitch around the hour, that is a clean record.

Where the same mistakes keep showing up

He was always the first one off. Against Gimpo, in the digest’s words, he “faded after the opening goal” and came off for Byun Kyung-jun at 55 minutes. He was replaced by Byun at Paju, at Ansan, against Yongin and against Seongnam, and by Euller against Suwon FC, Hwaseong, Jeonnam and Cheongju. In ten starts he never reached the 75th minute. Some of that was the plan, since Kim Do-gyun used Byun as a second-half weapon before his enlistment and Byun scored three goals in the two matches after replacing Kang at Paju and Ansan. But it also meant Kang was the first attacker out every week.

The dribbling has not arrived. Seoul signed him for his pressing, his speed and “aggressive dribbling,” in the club’s own words. FotMob has him with one successful dribble all season, from about nine attempts. He is a player who plays forward quickly and arrives in the box, 34 touches there in 736 minutes, but he does not beat his man on his own, and when the back four came in during the summer, the wide roles went to Ahn Joo-wan and Lee Ju-hyeok, with Euller moving between both flanks.

Three attacking points against a target of ten. He set the number himself in December. With six matches left and his minutes where they are, he is not going to reach it. His last goal involvement was on May 3.

His strengths, and what they mean for the last six

He is the late right-sided option. Kang has come on for Carius twice and for Euller once since July, and he has been on the bench for the last two matches. With Byun Kyung-jun at Gimcheon Sangmu, the manager’s late attacking options are Kang, Lee Ju-hyeok, Gabriel and Kim Hyun. In the three away matches left, at Gimpo, Yongin and Gyeongnam, a fresh runner in the right channel for the last 20 minutes is exactly the job he did in the spring.

Big-match history. The Korea Cup final goal and the winner at Gwangju are why Seoul signed him, and the Daegu debut showed it was not a Pohang story only. A promotion run-in and a possible playoff are the kind of matches his record says he turns up in.

Versatility. He has played right forward, in a front three with Park Jae-yong and Euller, and at right wing-back. If Kim Do-gyun goes back to the 3-4-3 he used at Suwon FC and against Daegu, Kang is one of the few players in the squad who has done both jobs on the right this season.

The verdict at Round 27

Kang’s season is two halves that do not look like the same player. From March to early June he was a regular in a side that climbed into the top three, and his Daegu debut was one of the best individual performances of the spring. Since July he has played less than half an hour. Some of that is circumstance: a new system, a fit Carius, a teenager who made the left wing his own. Some of it is that he has not beaten a man or created a goal since May, and the players ahead of him have.

Grade so far: C plus. The plus is for the Round 5 MVP and ten starts in the run that put Seoul in the race. The C is for eight appearances without a goal involvement and a summer spent mostly out of the squad.

Match log

Round	Opponent	Result	Role or Minutes	Goals	Assists	Note
4	Cheonan (A)	D 0-0	Unused substitute
5	Daegu (A)	W 3-1	Start, off 71’	1	1	Seoul debut; Round MVP
6	Suwon FC (H)	W 3-0	Start, off 54’			Replaced by the returning Euller
7	Paju (A)	W 3-1	Start, off 71’
8	Ansan (A)	W 2-0	Start, off 57’
9	Hwaseong (H)	L 1-2	Start, off at halftime
10	Gimpo (H)	W 2-1	Start, off 55’		1	Pass for Park Chang-hwan’s opener
11	Chungnam Asan (A)	L 0-3	Sub, 58’			Hit the woodwork
12	Yongin (H)	D 2-2	Start, off 60’
13	Seongnam (H)	W 3-1	Start, off 67’			Right wing-back
14	Jeonnam (A)	W 1-0	Start, off 56’			Shot blocked on the line
15	Chungbuk Cheongju (H)	L 1-2	Start, off 63’
19	Cheonan (H)	W 4-3	Sub, 77’			Replaced Carius
21	Hwaseong (A)	D 0-0	Sub, 76’
22	Ansan (H)	W 3-1	Sub, 90+2’
26	Suwon Samsung (H)	L 0-1	Unused substitute
27	Daegu (H)	W 2-1	Unused substitute

Statistics from the K League record and the club site, with match detail from the season’s digests and Korean match reports. Correction to earlier digests: his goal at Daegu was struck with his foot from Kim Oh-kyu’s headed knockdown, not off his knee, it came on his Seoul debut rather than his first-team debut, and his Korean name is 강현제. Part 16 follows.