BIOGRAPHY
KIM YEON KOUNG
DOB: 26 Febuary 1988
Nationality: Korean
Club: Fenerbahce
Height: 192 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight: 71 kg (157 lbs)
Spike Reach: 317 cm
Block Reach: 310 cm
Currently the best volleyball player in the world and the most paid. She is also the most decorated athlete in South Korea.
BEGINNING
Born in Ansan, Korea, Kim started to play volleyball after seeing her sister play at 10. Because she was small, she mainly played as a libero (usually the shortest person on the team) and later setter (usually the second shortest person on the team) throughout middle and high school. Then after a girl got injured Kim's junior year in high school, she replaced her as Outside Hitter. Throughout her young volleyball days she wanted to become taller to go further in the career. Surprisingly, in her later years in volleyball she started getting taller and taller growing about 20cm per year. After just started playing as spiker at 16, many saw her talent and was placed in the Junior World Championships in Sri Lanka as the Captain where she led the team to 5/6 place. Later when she was 17, she was placed in the Senior National Team in the starting line up where she became the best scorer and one of the most reliable players playing against great teams like the United States, Japan, and Poland. All this success after she barely transitioned positions. During the same year, Kim was drafted to be in Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spider's Volleyball team. And because Heungkuk was in the bottom of the league they got to pick first of all the rookies choosing the best young spiker leaving high school Kin Yeon Koung. The contract being that Kim would play for Heungkuk for 7 years than she can be free to play for whomever she wants.
V-LEAGUE
In her first season 2005/2006, she, in her rookie year, brought Heungkuk to be the Championship of the V-League after being on the bottom. She then got numerous awards like MVP, the Best 6 (Server, Receiver, Scorer, Blocker, Spiker, etc.), and Rookie of the Year. In her second season 2006/2007, Heungkuk also won the championship again being the first in V-League History. Again Kim Yeon Koung won MVP and the Best 6. In her 2007/2008 season Kim became plagued with so many injuries due to being overworked causing Heungkuk to lose the final and being runners up. In the 2008/2009 playing for Heungkuk again, Yeon Koung led the team to their third championship and she won MVP and the Best 6 again. She later said that this championship was a turning point for her because it is when she realized that the team is what makes one win. She explained in an interview that before when she was younger (around when she was 17-20) winning all those awards that young made her a bit arrogant making her believe that she was the factor that made them win. During and after that season, she changed her attitude on the court which made it more enjoyable when the team as a whole won.
Injuries: In her four years playing in Korea, Kim had three major injuries all impacting her knees including: removing bone fragments in her right knee in 2006, a torn cartilage in her left knee in 2007 and in 2008 Kim suffered the same injury in 2006 but in her left knee and because of these injuries her vertical jump isn't what it used to be. This also caused KOVO to remove the 2 point back attack system which made players overworked and sustainable to injury in 2007.
CLUB
NATIONAL
OVERSEAS
For the 2009/2010, several teams wanted to hire a spiker like Kim including several teams from Europe after seeing her play in the Korean National Team. After Kim Yeon Koung urged to play overseas, Heungkuk agreed for her to play for JT Marvelous a team in Japan a team that they had close ties too and at times she would wear HK’s name on her jersey. Her dreams of playing overseas came true and she became the first Korean Woman Volleyball Player to play overseas. In her first season overseas, she brought Jt Marvelous from the bottom of the league to runners up and became was awarded Best Scorer. After the league Kim played for Heungkuk during the KOVO Cup a tournament because she still belonged to this team. For the 2010/2011 league, she continued with the team and then they were winners of the V-League in Japan.
CLUB
NATIONAL
CLUB
FENERBAHCE
For the upcoming season, Kim received many offers from several top teams around the world (Russia, Azerbaijan, and Brazil) and the one of the most persistent was from Coach Ze Roberto from Fenerbahce from one of the best coaches in the world in one of the top teams in the world. The excited 23 year old pressured her club to let her play for this large club in Turkey. Reluctantly, Kim Yeon Koung was allowed to play for this club where she became the most paid volleyball player to date and Heungkuk getting part of her income. Kim Yeon Koung had several critics about her upcoming performance in Europe. As history foretold, Asians were never successful playing in European Leagues because of the fact that these leagues have a stronger and more powerful style of playing and are much taller whereas Asian Style playing is more quick and fast and not as powerful. This made the transition for Asians quite difficult. Critics also questioned Fenerbahce’s management of how they could replace a great player and Captain Natashia Osmerochevic with an unknown Asian player to play in the most prestigious competition in the world. When the 2011/2012 season began to everyone’s shock Kim played as if she has been playing in Europe for several years. Her performance was outstanding and she surprised everybody. Throughout the season, her performance stayed consistent: her scoring was powerful and never affected by the large blocks, her defense was great, and her serving shock the reception and made several aces. In the Champions League, Kim dominated the court and led the team to their first Championship in the competition. She was rewarded Best Scorer and “undoubted” MVP of the competition. For the 2012/2013 season, Fenerbahce played in the CEV Cup. Because the club violated CEV rules, the club was suspended to join the Champions League the following season. During this season, management made poor decisions in choosing the roster. Kim was a wanted player for every team around the world especially after her performance in the London Olympics. To Kim, Fenerbahce was her home, and Fenerbahce asked her to stay. She signed a two year contract after becoming a Free Agent because her contract with Huenkuek was finally over. Fenerbahce was then in the World Club Competition, but Kim could not play for Fenerbahce. The Korean Volleyball Association and Heungkuk didn’t issue her to be a Free Agent and was then entered as a nonexistent player. Fenerbahce played without Kim, and Kim had to fly to Korea to figure out what went wrong. Then everything became solved tempoarily. To be continued
NATIONAL
