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Two of South Korea's best football imports to Europe, midfielders Ki Sung-yueng and Lee Chung-yong, will have a chance to go head-to-head in the same league for the first time during the 2015-16 Premier League season.
The two close friends go back nearly a decade, when they both joined the South Korean club FC Seoul in 2006. Lee, 27, left the domestic league first when he signed with the Premier League club Bolton Wanderers in 2009.
Ki, 26, joined his friend on the way out, though he signed with Celtic in the Scottish Premier League.
Ki later moved to Swansea City in the Premier League before the 2012-2013 season, but by then, Lee's Bolton Wanderers had been relegated to the second-tier Football League Championship.
Lee was shipped to Premier League's Crystal Palace late in the 2014-15 season, finally setting the stage for a showdown highly anticipated by South Korean football aficionados.
Crystal Palace and Swansea City met in the season finale, but as fate would have it, Ki had already been ruled out of the season with a knee injury. Lee, too, stayed on the bench.
In the new season, the two will have another crack, as their clubs will meet on Dec. 28 and then on Feb. 6.
Lee suffered a broken right leg during the AFC Asian Cup in Australia in January, but has shown no ill effects of that during preseason. Ki, who scored a career-high eight goals last season, has also shaken off his knee surgery and has seen plenty of action in preseason.
Left back Yun Suk-young is hoping to join Lee and Ki in the Premier League soon, as his Queens Park Rangers open the 2015-16 competition in the Football League Championship.
QPR played in the first division last season, with Yun appearing in 23 matches. They finished dead last among 20 clubs to be relegated, however, and Yun would have to make a mark early on to have a chance to move to a big league club.
Yun suffered a knee injury while training on his own in South Korea and failed to joined QPR for the early camp.
The club has acquired former Liverpool and Fulham back Paul Konchesky on loan, as insurance to Yun.
Another South Korean, Kim Bo-kyung, is searching for a new home. After cutting ties with Wigan Athletics, relegated to the third division, he had agreed to terms with the second-tier club Blackburn Rovers. He even trained with the team briefly, before he was refused a work permit under the Football Association's rules, toughened in May to reduce non-European Union players in English football.
He reportedly had more lucrative offers to play elsewhere. Now the 25-year-old is seeking other options in Europe. (Yonhap)
The two close friends go back nearly a decade, when they both joined the South Korean club FC Seoul in 2006. Lee, 27, left the domestic league first when he signed with the Premier League club Bolton Wanderers in 2009.
Ki, 26, joined his friend on the way out, though he signed with Celtic in the Scottish Premier League.
Ki later moved to Swansea City in the Premier League before the 2012-2013 season, but by then, Lee's Bolton Wanderers had been relegated to the second-tier Football League Championship.
Lee was shipped to Premier League's Crystal Palace late in the 2014-15 season, finally setting the stage for a showdown highly anticipated by South Korean football aficionados.
Crystal Palace and Swansea City met in the season finale, but as fate would have it, Ki had already been ruled out of the season with a knee injury. Lee, too, stayed on the bench.
In the new season, the two will have another crack, as their clubs will meet on Dec. 28 and then on Feb. 6.
Lee suffered a broken right leg during the AFC Asian Cup in Australia in January, but has shown no ill effects of that during preseason. Ki, who scored a career-high eight goals last season, has also shaken off his knee surgery and has seen plenty of action in preseason.
Left back Yun Suk-young is hoping to join Lee and Ki in the Premier League soon, as his Queens Park Rangers open the 2015-16 competition in the Football League Championship.
QPR played in the first division last season, with Yun appearing in 23 matches. They finished dead last among 20 clubs to be relegated, however, and Yun would have to make a mark early on to have a chance to move to a big league club.
Yun suffered a knee injury while training on his own in South Korea and failed to joined QPR for the early camp.
The club has acquired former Liverpool and Fulham back Paul Konchesky on loan, as insurance to Yun.
Another South Korean, Kim Bo-kyung, is searching for a new home. After cutting ties with Wigan Athletics, relegated to the third division, he had agreed to terms with the second-tier club Blackburn Rovers. He even trained with the team briefly, before he was refused a work permit under the Football Association's rules, toughened in May to reduce non-European Union players in English football.
He reportedly had more lucrative offers to play elsewhere. Now the 25-year-old is seeking other options in Europe. (Yonhap)
