Sports Briefs

SNOWBOARDING

Kim injures ACL on half-pipe, may have to skip Olympics

Half-pipe snowboarder Kim Kwang-jin may not be able to compete in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics after he underwent surgery for a torn ACL in Seoul on Monday.

After receiving a score of 70.4 on his first run at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in Beijing, China, on Dec. 22, Kim injured his knee during a second run and had to withdraw from the third.

Although Kim said he hopes to recover quickly and compete in the PyeongChang Games, it is very unlikely, since the typical recovery time is six months.

Kim previously finished 25th at the Sochi Olympics and seventh at the FIS World Cup event in Beijing.

By Kang Yoo-rim

FOOTBALL

Daegu FC signs multiyear contracts with Caion, Jean

Daegu FC announced Tuesday that they had signed Herlison Caion de Sousa Ferreira and Jean Carlos Cloth Goncalves of Brazil on multiple-year contracts, but did not release further details.

Caion previously played in Korea after he signed with Gangwon FC in 2009. The 27-year-old then had stints in Iraq and Denmark, and played with Brazilian outfit Paysandu last year. Jean, 24, made his pro debut with Rio Preto Esporte Clube in 2014 and later played with Salgueiro and ABC FC.

“This is my first time playing overseas,” Jean said. “I want to lift a trophy with Daegu. Personally, I also want to be the top scorer in the league.”

Daegu said Caion and Jean will replace Evandro Silva do Nascimento and Junior Negrao, both also from Brazil. Evandro joined Daegu on loan, while Junior signed a short-term deal with the club last year.

Daegu, which finished eighth in the 12-team K League last year, said they had tried to re-sign Evandro and Junior, but couldn’t land the deal because they were wanted by many other clubs.

Chung: Men’s team will reach round of 16 in World Cup

Chung Mong-kyu, president of the Korea Football Association, said in a New Year’s address Tuesday that he was ready to give full support to the men’s national team to reach the knockout stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

“Last year, the Korea Football Association received heavy criticism,” Chung said, “and we understand people’s demands and judgment. We’ll do our best for the national team to reach the round of 16 at the World Cup in Russia.”

Korea is paired with defending champion Germany as well as Mexico and Sweden in Group F of the World Cup, which kicks off in June.

Chung also said the Korea Football Association would work on creating a healthy environment for youth football with new executives.

The governing body of Korean football conducted a personnel reshuffle in November that included the appointment of former Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung as youth program director.

Chung vowed to add eight-on-eight football to the elementary school curriculum by 2019 and get the number of registered footballers in Korea to top 200,000 this year.

There are currently about 110,000 registered.

Yonhap