Yongin City Signs Player Development Agreement with Spain's Seville FC

Yongin FC, a professional football club of Yongin Special City (club owner Mayor Lee Sang-il), signed a friendship agreement with Spain's prestigious football club Seville FC on the 22nd for the development of both clubs' football, the city announced on the 23rd.

Building on a friendship agreement between Yongin Special City and Seville City signed last October for mutual exchange and cooperation, the city is seeking practical cooperation methods in the sports sector.

The agreement ceremony was held at the Ciudad Deportiva Jose Ramón Cisneros Palacios training facility in Seville, Spain, and was attended by four officials from both clubs: Lee Dong-guk, technical director of Yongin FC; Shin Chang-hun, head of Yongin FC's player support team; José María Cruz Gallardo, head of the Seville FC Innovation Center; and Jose Collado Ripoll, head of the Seville FC International Project team.

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

Yongin FC's U18 team is currently conducting a training stage from September 14 to 24, participating in Seville FC's youth development system and training programs to experience the European football environment.

Under the agreement signed on the day, both clubs will share their experiences and knowledge until September 2027 and cooperate in various fields including △youth player development, △coaching capability enhancement education, △sports directing, and △research and development.

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

Yongin FC will conduct intensive short-term experiential programs for its youth players in Seville to develop their football capabilities. Through this program, players will experience training methods and player development processes that go beyond simple preseason training and are difficult to access domestically.

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

Centered on technical director Lee Dong-guk, Yongin FC plans to adopt various know-how from Seville FC, including player development strategies and transfers, player-specific data accumulation and utilization, and record management, to establish a consistent player management system from the youth level through the professional level.

Through this agreement, Yongin FC plans to actively adopt Seville FC's club management strategy and use it as nourishment for building future principles for Yongin FC's club operations and player development systems.

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

Mayor Lee stated, "It is very meaningful that the friendship agreement relationship between Yongin Special City and Seville City has led to football exchange," and continued, "I hope that Seville FC's long-accumulated experience and know-how regarding youth player development and football systems will be well integrated into Yongin FC's environment so that both players and coaches can grow together."