London: Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean teenager Yang Min-hyeok has been loaned to a second-division club without playing a match for the Premier League side. Queens Park Rangers (QPR) announced Wednesday (Britain local time) that they acquired the 18-year-old winger on a loan deal for the rest of the 2024-2025 campaign.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Yang expressed his enthusiasm on QPR's website, stating, "I am really happy to be here and I will try to do my best for the team. In every single match, I will try to help the team win and to make the fans happy. Any time that I can have an opportunity for the team, I am ready." Tottenham first announced their signing of Yang in July 2024, while he was playing for Gangwon FC of the K League 1. Yang traveled to London in December after the end of the South Korean season and officially joined Spurs earlier this month.
Despite his arrival at Tottenham, Yang did not play for the team and was unable to join his compatriot and club captain, Son Heung-min, on the pitch. On Jan. 3, Tottenham's head coach Ange Postecoglou remarked that there was "no real plan" to play Yang immediately. The coach highlighted the challenges Yang faced, stating, "He is still very young and has come in from the other side of the world where the level of competition is nowhere near what he is going to face here. We will just give him time to adapt. We are just trying to get him settled early and give him the chance to settle in."
Yang aims to regain the form that made him a standout player in the K League 1 last year. He was recognized as the Young Player of the Year and was nominated for the MVP award after scoring 12 goals and providing six assists, contributing to Gangwon's runner-up finish, their best performance in history. Reflecting on his career, Yang said, "When I joined a professional club in South Korea, I was very eager and very hungry to play in a professional league. Now, I have come to England and I am still eager and still hungry to succeed."
Yang is familiar with QPR, having watched South Korean legend Park Ji-sung play for the club during the 2012-2013 season before their relegation to the English Football League Championship. Since then, QPR has struggled to return to the Premier League, having been promoted for the 2014-2015 season only to be relegated immediately. Currently, they are in 13th place with 38 points, recording nine wins, 11 draws, and nine losses this season.