Season Review · Part 2
Season Review, Part 2: Park Jae-yong, Ten Goals With Every Part of His Body
The only Korean striker in double figures in K League 2, a header, a knee, a calf and both feet among his ten, three quiet weeks in September and a hundredth appearance that ended them: what Park Jae-yong has done well, where he goes missing, and why the last six need him at his best.
Part 1 of this series covered Euller, the player every opponent plans for. Part 2 is the player those plans keep freeing up. Same format: what he has done well, where the same mistakes repeat, and what his strengths mean for the six matches left.
The season in one paragraph
Park Jae-yong arrived in December from Jeonbuk, where he had spent two years behind foreign strikers and played 13 league matches in 2025. He said in January that Seoul E-Land had wanted him “strongly,” that he believed they could go up, and that his target was ten goal involvements; he later revised it to 16, to match his shirt. Through Round 27 he has 10 goals and 4 assists, is the only Korean striker in the division in double figures, and scored the winner against Daegu in his hundredth K League appearance. The ten goals have come off his head, his knee, his calf, his left foot and his right foot, and four of them were rebounds or scrambles. He has also gone missing for stretches: three matches without a goal in September, a Sports Chosun piece on September 15 naming him as tired and silent, a manager who says publicly that “he still has ups and downs,” and a season conversion rate of one goal every six shots. He is, in other words, exactly the striker a promotion-chasing second-division side needs and exactly the one it worries about.
By the numbers
| 2025 (Jeonbuk, K League 1) | 2026 through Round 27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Appearances, starts | 13, few | 25, 20 |
| Minutes | 1,869 | |
| Goals | 1 | 10 (5th in K League 2) |
| Assists | 4 | |
| Goal involvements | 14 | |
| Shots, on target | 58, 29 | |
| Headed shots | 17 | |
| Aerial duels won | 70, at 57 percent, top decile of the division’s forwards | |
| Touches in the opposition box | 115 | |
| Yellow cards | 3 | |
| Round Best XI | 2 (Rounds 20 and 27) | |
| Round MVP | 1 (Round 27) |
How the ten went in: two headers, one knee, one calf, one left foot, five right foot. Four rebounds or scrambles, three finishes from a cross or cutback, two off the bench, one through pass controlled and struck.
What he has done well
He scores with whatever arrives. The Korean press settled on a phrase for him in May: he scores “with his whole body.” It is accurate rather than kind. His first goal of the season was a header at Suwon Samsung in February. His third was a knee redirect against Suwon FC. His fifth against Seongnam went in off his calf, and he said so afterward. His fourth was a first-time left-footed finish against Hwaseong. The one against Daegu was a controlled right-footed strike into the top corner. A striker who needs the ball on one foot from one angle is a striker who scores in bursts; one who converts whatever comes into the box is a striker who scores in every third match, which is what he has done.
He is first to the second ball. Three of the ten were rebounds: Gimhae, where his heel flick was saved and he buried the return; Paju, where Kim Hyun’s header was parried and he was on it; and the Seongnam scramble. His own line, from April, is the best description of his game: “Luck is a skill too. For a striker, scoring even by accident matters.” The digests have called him the first man to the second ball inside the box since May, and nothing in September changed that.
He makes Euller better. Both of his assists to Euller, at Gimhae and at Suwon FC, were the same move: take the ball with his back to goal, lay it into the space Euller runs onto, get out of the way. The header he knocked down for Euller’s volley at Hwaseong was the same move without the goal. The winner against Daegu came the other way around, Euller carrying, Baek Ji-woong passing, Park finishing, and Park’s first act afterward was to find Baek and promise him drinks for the rest of the season. He plays like someone who knows the goals are a shared product.
He is an impact substitute as well as a starter. Five of his 25 appearances came off the bench, three of them at halftime, and he scored in two of them (Gimhae, Cheonan) and assisted in a third (Ansan). Kim Do-gyun has started Kim Hyun ahead of him six times this season, and when Park came on the attack usually sharpened. That is not a criticism of the manager. It is a description of a striker who is more dangerous against a tired defense than a fresh one, which is worth knowing with six matches left against sides with nothing to play for.
He works. Kim Do-gyun’s assessment in April was that he is “lacking as a striker in some ways, but has the work rate, the fight and the goals, and a good attitude.” Seventy aerial duels won and 18 fouls committed is a center-forward who contests everything. His own account of the move from Jeonbuk is that he wanted to play, felt the club wanted him, and chose a permanent transfer over a loan because he thought Seoul could go up. He has said the pressure is real and that living up to it is “my job.”
Where the same mistakes keep showing up
He disappears for halves. The manager said it in public after Paju in August: “In the first half he was barely visible. Even if it is hard for him, I want him to show more responsibility.” He said a version of it again after Daegu, in a kinder register, that the goals help but “there are still ups and downs.” The match reports agree. Against Gyeongnam in March and at Hwaseong in August he was marked out of the game and generated almost nothing on his own; his dribble numbers are close to zero, and when the service stops, so does he.
The droughts. Rounds 10, 14 and 15 without a goal contribution. Rounds 21 and 22. Then Rounds 24, 25 and 26, the three matches that took Seoul from second to fourth, in which he had a header saved and another off the post against Suwon Samsung and told reporters afterward he was sorry as a striker not to have scored. He said before the Daegu match that people had told him he was stuck on nine. He was.
The chances he does not take. Fifty-eight shots for ten goals. In May, on five goals, he said himself that he had had chances for seven or eight. Since then: a shot straight at the goalkeeper at Suwon FC, one over the bar from a defensive error at Seongnam, and the post at Mokdong. The site’s own model has Seoul’s tiebreaker problem, five goals behind Suwon FC on goals scored, as the thing most likely to decide second place. Park is where that gap would have closed.
Fitness. He flagged it himself in May: two years of limited minutes at Jeonbuk, then a full season in the heat. The manager rested him at Cheongju with Suwon in mind. The Sports Chosun piece on fatigue was written after the Suwon match and before Daegu, and Daegu answered it. The break answers it further. But a 193-centimeter striker who contests 70 aerial duels and presses from the front is a player whose autumn form depends on how his body holds up.
His strengths, and what they mean for the last six
Height, and the willingness to use it. He wins more aerial duels than almost any forward in the division, and Seoul’s remaining opponents are all bottom-half sides who will defend deep and long. Corners, free kicks and crosses from Euller are the most reliable route to goals in those matches, and he is the target for all three.
Finishing variety. Against a low block the ball arrives at odd heights and angles. A striker who scores with his calf is a striker who does not need the perfect chance.
The bench option. With Kim Hyun and Gabriel as alternatives and Kim Do-gyun’s stated wish for goals from substitutes, the manager has a choice he did not have in the spring: Park from the start against sides that will tire, or Park at halftime against sides that sit in. Both have produced goals this season.
The relationship with the club. He chose Seoul, chose a permanent deal, and set himself a goals target in public. He has celebrated with a child from the Smile School program three weeks after promising to, delivered a match ball to a young fan, and slid on his knees against Daegu despite his mother asking him not to. The club’s fifth straight Fan-Friendly award cited him. That matters for a run-in in which the crowd at Mokdong will be asked to carry the team through three home matches.
The verdict at Round 27
The best Korean striker in the division by output, on a side that is not built to feed one man, and a player whose season has been a run of short bursts with quiet weeks between them. Ten goals from a striker who was expected to hit double figures in involvements, not goals, is a season that has exceeded its brief. Six more goalless halves would be a season that ended one goal short.
Grade so far: B plus. The plus is for the ten goals, the aerial numbers and the Daegu winner. The absence of an A is for September, and for the chances that would have made the tiebreaker irrelevant.
Match log
| Round | Opponent | Result | Role | Goals | Assists | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suwon Samsung (A) | L 1-2 | Start | 1 | Header, the only goal Suwon conceded until April | |
| 2 | Gyeongnam (H) | W 1-0 | Start | Starved of service | ||
| 3 | Busan (H) | L 2-3 | Start | 1 | Header from Euller’s free kick | |
| 4 | Cheonan (A) | D 0-0 | Start | |||
| 5 | Daegu (A) | W 3-1 | Start | Dummy run for Iredale’s goal | ||
| 6 | Suwon FC (H) | W 3-0 | Start | 1 | 1 | Knee finish; four of four aerials won |
| 7 | Paju (A) | W 3-1 | Start | |||
| 8 | Ansan (A) | W 2-0 | Sub | 1 | Return pass for Byun Kyung-jun | |
| 9 | Hwaseong (H) | L 1-2 | Start | 1 | Left-foot first-time finish | |
| 10 | Gimpo (H) | W 2-1 | Start | |||
| 11 | Chungnam Asan (A) | L 0-3 | Start | Replaced by Kim Hyun on 63 | ||
| 12 | Yongin (H) | D 2-2 | Sub, halftime | |||
| 13 | Seongnam (H) | W 3-1 | Start | 1 | Off the calf; Smile School celebration | |
| 14 | Jeonnam (A) | W 1-0 | Start | |||
| 15 | Chungbuk Cheongju (H) | L 1-2 | Unused substitute | Kim Hyun started and scored | ||
| 16 | Gimhae (A) | W 3-1 | Sub | 1 | 1 | Rebound goal, lay-off for Euller |
| 18 | Suwon FC (A) | D 2-2 | Start | 1 | Lay-off for Euller’s equalizer | |
| 19 | Cheonan (H) | W 4-3 | Sub, halftime | 1 | Right foot from Carius’s delivery | |
| 20 | Busan (A) | W 2-1 | Start | 1 | Tap-in winner; Best XI | |
| 21 | Hwaseong (A) | D 0-0 | Start | Marked out | ||
| 22 | Ansan (H) | W 3-1 | Sub, halftime | |||
| 23 | Paju (H) | D 1-1 | Start | 1 | Rebound; hit the bar | |
| 24 | Seongnam (A) | D 1-1 | Start | Shot over from a defensive error | ||
| 25 | Chungbuk Cheongju (A) | W 2-0 | Start | Rested on 79 | ||
| 26 | Suwon Samsung (H) | L 0-1 | Start | Header saved, header off the post | ||
| 27 | Daegu (H) | W 2-1 | Start | 1 | Winner in his 100th K League match; Round MVP |
Statistics from the K League record and the club site, with match detail from the season’s digests and Korean match reports. One correction to earlier digests: the official assist on his Hwaseong goal was Byun Kyung-jun’s, not Euller’s. This log was corrected on September 22: he started Round 11 and was an unused substitute in Round 15, not the other way around. Part 3 follows.