Tottenham Hotspur‘s Yang Min-hyeok still needs time to adapt and adjust to the needs of Belgian football, after joining KVC Westerlo on loan in the summer window.
The 20-year-old graduated from Gangwon FC’s academy and made 32 appearances for their first team. He managed 12 goals and six assists for the South Korean club and left them for Tottenham in January 2025.
Spurs immediately sent him on loan to Queens Park Rangers before sanctioning another loan move to Coventry City last summer. The winger wasn’t able to impress with the latter.
Therefore, the Premier League side cut short his stay in January and immediately sent him on loan to Portsmouth. In the summer, Roberto De Zerbi didn’t consider the winger, who made a switch to Westerlo in August.
Difficult start for Tottenham man
The South Korea international hasn’t enjoyed a good run with the Jupiler Pro League side so far.
In August, he made his debut in the 3-2 defeat to KRC Genk and played five minutes. Later that month, Yang Min-hyeok again came off the bench in the defeat to Lommel SK.
Since then, Westerlo manager Issame Charaï left the Tottenham Hotspur owned player out of the squad for four league matches before recalling him on October 11th. Yang Min-hyeok again came on in the second half and scored in their 5-1 win over Royal Antwerp.
Last weekend, the attacker made his first start in the Croky Cup win over Patro Eisden but was replaced after 45 minutes.
Message sent to Tottenham attacker
Saturday’s edition of Gazet van Antwerpen have published an interview with the Spurs man and Issame Charaï.
On scoring his first goal, he said: “I felt good before the match. When I was allowed to come on at the end, I absolutely wanted to show what I could do. It doesn’t get much better than that. How many times have I watched that goal back? Very often. My friends and family from South Korea all sent me a message with that video.”
Yang Min-hyeok had clocked in a top speed of 35.42 km/h at Gangwon FC.
On his strengths, Yang explained: “My greatest qualities? Speed and dribbling. I try to train specifically on my explosiveness, but it is a natural gift I was born with. How fast am I today? No idea, but I expect I am faster than I was two years ago.”
However, the Westerlo manager expects more from the South Korean.
“I haven’t seen enough of that intensity from Yang here so far. Not in training either. He still needs to grow in that area,” he concluded.
The Spurs attacker needs to work on his overall game to improve while in Belgium. He has to shine at Westerlo to maintain hope of getting opportunities at Tottenham.
