Yongin City Signs Player Development Agreement with Seville FC

Yongin FC, a professional soccer club of Yongin Special Exceptional City (with Mayor Lee Sang-il as club owner), announced on the 23rd that it signed a friendship agreement with prestigious Spanish soccer club Seville FC on the 22nd to promote mutual soccer development.

Based on the friendship agreement for mutual exchange and cooperation signed between Yongin City and Seville City last October, the two are seeking substantial cooperation methods in the sports field.

The agreement ceremony was held at the Ciudad Deportiva Jose Ramón Cisneros Palacios training ground in Seville, Spain, and was attended by four officials from both clubs: Lee Dong-kuk, Yongin FC Technical Director; Shin Chang-hun, Yongin FC Player Support Team Manager; José María Cruz Gallardo, Seville FC Innovation Center Director; and Jose Collado Ripoll, Seville FC International Projects Team Manager.

Yongin FC established this agreement in connection with the training stage currently underway for the U18 team to experience Seville FC's youth development system and training programs. This follows a mid- to long-term vision of gradually integrating Seville FC's player development experience and soccer expertise into Yongin FC's environment.

The Yongin FC U18 team is participating in a training stage from September 14 to 24, experiencing Seville FC's youth development system and training programs in a European soccer environment.

Under the agreement signed this day, the two clubs will share experiences and knowledge until September 2027 and cooperate in various fields including: △youth player development, △coaching staff competency enhancement training, △sports directing, and △research and development.

Seville FC will first share its player development expertise with Yongin FC to identify the latent talents of promising players and develop them into skilled athletes.

Yongin FC will conduct short-term intensive experience programs in Seville to build soccer skills for its youth players. Through this program, players will experience training methods and player development processes that go beyond a simple training camp and are difficult to access domestically.

Education for enhancing the capabilities of Yongin FC's coaches and technical staff is also being arranged. Plans include participating in online intensive courses operated by Seville FC and short-term intensive workshops held in various cities to improve expertise.

Centered on Technical Director Lee Dong-kuk, Yongin FC plans to establish a consistent player management system from the youth stage through the professional level by adopting Seville FC's player development strategies, recruitment methods, player data accumulation and utilization, and record management expertise in various sectors.

Through this agreement, Yongin FC plans to actively adopt Seville FC's club management strategies and use them as a foundation for establishing Yongin FC's club management principles and player development systems in the future.

Seville FC is a prestigious Spanish club that has participated in La Liga, Spain's professional soccer league, for 67 seasons, and won the championship with a record of 14 wins, 8 draws, and 4 losses during the 1945-1946 season.

Mayor Lee said, "It is very meaningful that the friendship agreement between Yongin City and Seville City has led to soccer exchanges," and added, "I hope that Seville FC's experience and expertise accumulated over a long period in youth player development and soccer systems will be well integrated into Yongin FC's environment to create a foundation where both players and coaches can grow."