"Hong Myung Bo Ho's Hong Myung-bo Team table is out."' Hong Hyun Suk is back in the national team after a year and four months

*This content was translated by AI.

It is truly a surprise selection. Hong Hyun-seok (27, KAAhent), who had been away from the national soccer team after the departure of German coach Jurgen Klinsmann, wore the national flag again. It has been a year and four months since November 2024.

Hong Hyun-suk was listed on the March national soccer team's warm-up match announced at Korea Football Park in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province on the 16th. South Korea, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, will play against Ivory Coast at Milton Keynes in England at 11 p.m. on the 28th (Korea Standard Time) and Austria at 3:45 a.m. on the 1st of next month in Vienna, Austria. In fact, it was a surprise ride in a year and four months ahead of the final mock test of the 2026 FIFA 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup.

Hong Hyun-seok first wore the national flag in June 2023 at the call of then-German coach Jurgen Klinsmann. He also joined the final entry of the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup the following year, playing 10 games under Klinsmann, including his A match debut. He was also called under Hwang Sun-hong and Kim Do-hoon.

However, after the appointment of Hong Myung-bo, his position on the national team has declined significantly. In October 2024, he played in the third and fourth rounds of the World Cup qualifiers against Jordan and Iraq in the 45th and 40th minutes of the second half, respectively, and finally got a chance to play at the end of the game. The following month, in November, both teams kept only the bench in the match against Kuwait and Palestine. He returned to his team without playing for a minute, and has never been called by coach Hong Myung-bo since then.

His performance has also declined a lot on his own. He played in 23 league games for Mainz05 in the German Bundesliga in the 2024-2025 season and played only six games in Nantes (France) in the first half of this season. In the end, he left the European big league and returned to Hent, Belgium, where he had been active in the past. He has one goal in eight appearances for Hent.

After transferring to Hent on loan in mid-January, he is in the stage of re-establishing his condition. He scored his first goal in three games of transfer, but since then, he has been exchanging resources for selection and replacement within the team. Recently, he has played about 60 minutes as a starter in two consecutive games for his team, but he has never played full season since his transfer.

It is highly utilized in that it is a "multi-player" that can play various positions. In his current team Hent, he is moving between offensive midfielders and side wingers, and the central midfielder is also a player who can play. Even during the two consecutive games in October 2023, when head coach Hong Myung-bo last used Hong Hyun-seok, Hwang In-beom (Feyenoord) and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), respectively, were the replacement players.

However, since he has been away from the national team for so long, the key is how coach Hong Myung-bo finds how to use Hong Hyun-seok in a short time. On the contrary, it is important for Hong Hyun-seok to show his presence within a limited opportunity. Coach Hong Myung-bo said, "Hong Hyun-seok met in Belgium after the transfer. However, I haven't seen him play in person. I've been playing steadily since then," he said, explaining the background of his selection.

- GK: Kim Seung-gyu (FC Tokyo), Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan HD), Song Bum-keun (Jeonbuk)

- DF: Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), Cho Yoo-min (Sharjah FC), Kim Tae-hyun (Kashima Antlers), Lee Tae-seok (Austriabin), Seol Young-woo (Trvenazvezda), Jens Kastrov (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Kim Joo-sung (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Lee Han-beom (Mit Willan), Kim Moon-hwan (Daejeon Hana Citizen)

- MF: Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Yang Hyun-joon (Celtic), Baek Seung-ho (Birmingham City), Park Jin-seop (Joji FC), Hwang In-beom (Feyenoord), Hong Hyun-suk (KAAhent), Kim Jin-kyu (Jeonbuk Hyundai), Kwon Hyuk-kyu (Carlsruhe), Bae Jun-ho (Stock City), Um Ji-sung (Swansea City), Lee Jae-sung (Mainz), Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

- FW: Son Heung-min (Los Angeles FC), Oh Hyun-kyu (Besiktashi), Cho Kyu-sung (Mit Willan)

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*This content was translated by AI.