The best foreigner in the K-League

[Holyjoe]

OK, take your pick, build a squad, choose one from each position or award them all the Order Of The Equine Rear End if you wish...

Here's the full list broken down into positions (including Shin Ui-son and Lee Song-nam because they were foreigners to begin with )

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Goalkeepers
Valeri Sarychev (FC Seoul)

Defenders
Jasenko Sabitovic (Seongnam)
Ivan Testemitanu (Seongnam)
Javier Martin Musa (Suwon)
Flama (Daejeon)
Santos (Pohang)
Souza (FC Seoul)
Santiago (Daegu)
Boris Raic (Bucheon)

Midfielders
Andrei Solomatin (Seongnam)
Gabriel Popescu (Suwon)
Zoran Urumov (Suwon)
Caio (Chunnam)
Viera (Chunnam)
Botti (Cheonbuk)
Gomes (Cheonbuk)
Rodrigo (Daejeon)
Davarez (Pohang)
Fumugali (FC Seoul)
Valentin (FC Seoul)
Yashkin Artem (Bucheon)
Djorde Tomic (Incheon)
Masakiyo Maezono (Incheon)

Forwards
Dudu (Seongnam)
Marcelo Macedo (Seongnam)
Denis Laktionov (Seongnam)
Josip Simic (Ulsan)
Souza (Ulsan)
Dodo (Ulsan)
Carlos (Ulsan)
Daniel (Ulsan)
Nadson (Suwon)
Marcel (Suwon)
Ittamar (Chunnam)
Motta (Chunnam)
Edu (Cheonbuk)
Roma (Cheonbuk)
Paulo Roberto Rink (Cheonbuk)
Luciano (Daejeon)
Henrique (Daejeon)
Alisong (Daejeon)
Carlos (Pohang)
Goran Petreski (Pohang)
Santana (FC Seoul)
Ricardo (FC Seoul)
Adriano (Busan)
Andy Cooke (Busan)
Ahmad Elrich (Busan)
Nonato (Daegu)
Feijao (Daegu)
Cheik Oumar Dabo (Bucheon)
Ricardo Irineu (Bucheon)
Dragan Stoijsavljevic (Incheon)
Dzenan Radondic (Incheon)
Manic Radivoje (Incheon)

[Holyjoe]

Righty, here go my selections:

Defender
Jasenko Sabitovic is head and shoulders above the rest, but then he doesn't have much competition. Santos at Pohang has looked reasonably decent when I've seen him, but as for the rest... it's kind of hard to take a Bucheon defender seriously, and Javier Martin Musa reminds me too much of similarly-styled defenders seen in the SPL in recent seasons (Lorenzo Amoruso, Dave McPherson, Goran Petric - oddly enough, all of them played for Rangers at one time or another ).

Midfielder
Gabriel Popescu doesn't really count in this category because he is out on loan to FC National, so I'd have to plump for Botti at Cheonbuk as he has impressed. Viera at Chunnam is someone else I've liked.
And of course, honourable mention goes to Zoran Urumov

Forward
A toughie, as there are tons of 'flavours of the month' who turn bad after a few months (hello, Nadson). I suppose you'd have to look at Manic Radivoje and Denis Laktionov purely on the strength of their past records in the league to show they are bloody good players, but I've been reasonably impressed with Goran Petreski (Conan) whenever I've seen him.
Motta at Chunnam is a nifty wee player, and the two Brazilians at Seongnam have looked pretty decent.

[SteveW]

Or just try to combine their names to make vaguely comedy sounding sentences that aren't really funny but pass some time like...

Ivan Ittamar Botti.

[Ed.]

Defender
I'd go with the same two defenders, but I'd give the nod to Santos. I've only seen him play about 4 or 5 times, but he's the coolest defender I've seen in the K-League since Zoltan Sabo.

Midfielder
Gomes - a destroyer who also has a good brain going forward.

Forward (Christ, what a ridiculous amount of forwards they've imported)
Take your pick. Nonato's statistics say a lot, Manic Radivoje is playing the best football of his life. Any of you seen Dragan Stojisavljevic play? On form, he can shred defences, but he's one of a number of good players (Lee Sang-hun, Jung Kwang-min...) whose failure to see eye-to-eye with Cho Kwang-rae finished them at Anyang/Seoul. Don't know how many of you wil agree, but I reckon if Andy Cooke was getting the supply, he could be one of the most dangerous strikers in the league.
You're right about Petreski - he's great when his head's in order, but he's had some issues - might get more first-team football when they lock up Woo Sung-yong.

[SteveW]

Well, I've had limited exposure to a lot of these guys... some I've never seen, some I've seen once...but from what I know:

Defenders: When I saw Sabi he looked head and shoulders above the rest but now he doesn't get a game for Seongnam!! Ivan looked pretty solid. Musa has the potential to be a good player but he is prone to the odd Lorenzo Amoruso style rush of blood to the head and his passing makes Derek Whyte look like Beckenbauer. Haven't seen much of Santos.

Midfield: In terms of pure ability I think the two Suwon guys have it. Gabi's record speaks for itself and I don't believe that Cha wants him out! Urumov has a sweet left foot and he's second to none for set pieces... but his problem is that he can't play for 90 minutes. Hes good in flashes but to be a top midfielder you need to be able to control a game... he can't. Haven't seen much of the others though I was vaguely impressed by Artem once or twice given the crap he has around him.

Forward: Too much inconsistency in all the strikers so if you catch them on an off day you will think they are awful. This is the case for manic who I've never seen do much. Probably Petreski is the one who I have seen pose the most problems. Old Denis looked like a great wee player....new Lee Seongnam looks like a waste of space.

Not impressed with the Busan frontline...the Daejon guys are just cheats and the rest I haven't seen enough. The Suwon guys have potential but they are too often anonymous.

[SteveW]

OK so pick a team:

Grandpa

Sabi Ivan Musa

Denis Gabi Artem Urumov (had to play dennis right wing cos I don't know the other mids)

Petreski Marcel Dudu (based on him scoring last night)


That team would be sure to win every game 6-5

[Holyjoe]

Ed. said:

Don't know how many of you wil agree, but I reckon if Andy Cooke was getting the supply, he could be one of the most dangerous strikers in the league.

I think the league is perfectly suited to British strikers in the Cooke mould... not exactly technically gifted, but a strong and powerful forward who can force his way through defences and into positions and get on the end of things.
The Korean strikers seem to want to take their time and score the best goal of their life each time they get within sniffing range of the goal, and a lot of the Brazilians fall into that trap from time to time, and they just get crowded out by the defence. Stick a big bloke in there to blunder his way through and he'll be banging them in.

On Dragan Stojisavljevic, I seem to recall seeing him a couple of times last year for Anyang. I also remember NJS ranting about Cho Kwang-rae's decisions on the foreign players (on a very regular basis ), in particular I remember him going on about some striker who was scoring a shedload of goals in early-2003 but somehow fell out of favour and couldn't get back in the team. Not sure if he was referring to Dragan or someone else as Cho played about 27 players upfront on various occasions last year.

Any info on Petreski's "issues"?