10 months of racing until next May
Son Heung-min enters his ninth season in the EPL
First game against Brentford on Sept. 13
Kim Min-jae and Lee Kang-in make their ‘big club’ debuts
The English Premier League, home to Son Heung-min (Tottenham, left), and France’s Ligue 1, home to Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain, right), will kick off their new seasons side by side on Wednesday. The Spanish La Liga will open its 2023-2024 season on the same day. The new season of the German Bundesliga, in which Kim Min-jae (center) will play in a Bayern Munich uniform, 토토 kicks off on Sept. 19.
The five biggest leagues in European soccer, including the English Premier League (EPL), begin their new seasons this weekend. The EPL, France’s Ligue 1, and Spain’s La Liga will kick off their 2023-2024 seasons on Dec. 12 local time. The German Bundesliga kicks off on the 19th, and Italy’s Serie A is the latest to kick off on the 20th. The European leagues will keep soccer fans awake at night for 10 months until May next year.
Son Heung-min aims for a comeback
In his ninth season in the EPL, Son Heung-min (31, Tottenham) is looking to redeem himself. After becoming the first Asian player to score 23 goals in the EPL in 2021-2022, Heung-min scored just 10 goals last season. It was his seventh consecutive season of double-digit scoring and his 100th career EPL goal, but it wasn’t enough to win him the title of top scorer. Heung-min scored four goals in his EPL debut in 2015-2016 and has scored in double figures in every season since, with the lowest being last season.
Looking ahead to the new season, Son is confident that he will “show the old Sonny (Son’s nickname) that people know.” “I feel like a new person,” he said in a recent interview with the Daily Mail. “I feel like a new person, and I’m ready to perform well again,” he said, adding, “The me of last season was not the me that many fans knew. Son had a tough year last season, suffering a fractured bone around his eye and a hernia.
Tottenham will kick off their league campaign against Brentford at 10 p.m. on Sept. 13. Brentford has defender Kim Ji-Soo, 19, who helped South Korea reach the quarterfinals at this year’s Under-20 World Cup. Kim joined Brentford in June from Seongnam in the Korean professional soccer K League 2 (second division) and became the 15th South Korean player to play in the Premier League. He’s been training with the first and second teams in preseason, so if he’s named in the lineup against Tottenham, expect to see him face off against Son Heung-min.
Kim Min-jae and Lee Kang-in make new stage debuts
‘Iron Pillar’ Kim Min-jae (27) and ‘Shooting Star’ Lee Kang-in (22) have moved on and will continue to challenge themselves in the European leagues. Both players have moved to “big clubs” around the world. Kim Min-jae, who became the first Asian player to be named Defender of the Year last season while playing for Napoli in Serie A, has donned the jersey of Bayern Munich, the home of the Bundesliga. The Bavarians have won the Bundesliga a record 33 times, including 11 consecutive titles dating back to last season. They have also won the UEFA Champions League six times. Of the five major European leagues, 안전놀이터 only Munich has won their domestic league for more than 10 consecutive seasons.
After joining Munich for a record-breaking €50 million ($72.4 billion) transfer fee for an Asian player, Kim started the final three matches of the preseason and is expected to start the season opener, given his unparalleled defensive prowess in the Italian league. Munich head coach Thomas Tuchel was also pleased with Kim’s performance in preseason. “He can play both right and left center back and is good at overlapping as well as defending,” Tuchel said of Kim, adding, “He brings flexibility and stability to our backline.” Munich will kick off their league campaign against Werder Bremen on September 19 at 3:30 am.
Fans are also eagerly anticipating the Ligue 1 debut of new Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) signing Lee Kang-In. PSG, who won their second consecutive league title last season, have won the league a record 11 times. While Lee is one of PSG’s most anticipated signings of the summer, it’s still too early to tell if he’ll be a starter. Unlike Kim Min-jae, he is likely to face stiff competition for a starting spot. Local French media outlets have released their predicted starting lineups for PSG ahead of the Ligue 1 opener, and Lee Kang-in is not one of them. 스포츠토토 PSG will play their first match against Lorient at 4 a.m. on Sept. 13.