Former Italian national football team central defenders Fabio Cannavaro (50) and Marco Materazzi 카지노사이트(50) have praised South Korean player Kim Min-jae (27-Bayern Munich), who plays in the same position.
The two legends, along with their contemporary Brazilian star Ronaldinho (43), arrived in South Korea on the 8th.
They will be in the country for 12 days, taking part in youth football clinics and experiencing Korean culture.
The event is organised by Lasing City Group, a soccer business mainly in Europe, South America and the Middle East, and Traveling, a travel agency that specialises in domestic VIP tours and overseas themed trips.
The three legends, including Cannavaro, attended a press conference at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in Yeongdeungpo-gu on Tuesday to answer questions from the media in their first official appearance.
As Cannavaro and Materazzi are central defenders, a question about Kim Min-jae came up during the Q&A.
Materazzi joked, “This is for Cannavaro from Napoli,” and said, “He’s a great player with great skills. He only played one year (in Italy), but he was fantastic. I want to congratulate him on his successful performance.”
Cannavaro has a lot in common with Kim Min-jae. He started his playing career with Kim’s former club Napoli (Serie A), and also watched Kim at Guangzhou Hengda in Chinese professional football before turning to coaching. Kim was with Beijing Guoan in 2019-2021.
“I saw him when I was a coach in China, and he was a great player, but he made some mistakes,” Cannavaro recalls.
“He has grown tremendously in the last two years playing in Europe. “He deserved the Scudetto (the shield the Italian champions wear on their jerseys the following season),” he said, adding that “at Napoli he played with confidence and excelled. He was the ‘idol’ of Napoli.”
“For the good of the club, he should have stayed,” Cannavaro said. The fans were very upset after he left,” he said, adding with a smile, “I hope he comes back to Napoli, even if it’s just for a trip.”
Cannavaro then went on to praise other Korean defenders, having coached Kwon Kyung-won (31) at Tianjin and Park Ji-soo (29) at Guangzhou during his time in China.
“Coming from Italy and having a defensive football philosophy, I have fond memories of teaching Korean defenders,” he said, “they are very focused and have an excellent ability to read the game.”
Meanwhile, Cannavaro, Materazzi and Ronaldinho will return to Korea in October. The trio will represent the Brazilian and Italian Legends teams against the Korean Legends team in the Legends All-Star Game friendly on 21 October.
Ronaldinho, Cannavaro (far left) and Materazzi (centre) pose during a press conference. The news
Cannavaro said he would love to play against Son Heung-min (31-Tottenham Hotspur) in the friendly. “I know it’s difficult, but I want to play against him, I want to play against him as a defender,” he said, adding, “I don’t know if it’s possible because I’m older, but I think (Son) is one of the best players in European football right now.”
Upon hearing this, Materazzi joked, “He (Son) is so fast, you can’t stop him.”