Interview Part Two: Dejan Damjanović talks K League and his former clubs | OneFootball

In part two of K League United's interview with Dejan Damjanović, the conversation turned to his former teams: the good times potentially returning for FC Seoul, the plight of Incheon United and their relegation from K League 1, Suwon Bluewings marooned in the second tier, Daegu FC's potential relegation if the Sky Blues aren't careful, and what the problems could be with an autumn-spring schedule and adding more foreign players. Part one can be found here.

Dejan had been around the grounds a bit during his recent stay in Korea, a long-overdue visit to a country he'd called home for over a decade. There were several visits to Seoul World Cup Stadium, as fans with selfies will attest, Incheon's Sungui Arena Park, and DGB Daegu Bank Park to check in on some of his former teams, say hello to old friends, and for once just sit back and enjoy watching K League, something which Dejan said "felt great."

"To be honest, when I was a player, I've never had the opportunity to watch that amount of games in that short period, because you know you have a game, then you have recovery, then you have your free day that you spend with family. But now I'm here alone. My family didn't come because this is my first season here in this project (Shooting Star). So I came along to see how everything will go. But I was very happy to be on the stadium."

Dejan's presence, he says, sparked curiosity as to what he's up to post-retirement. Is he here as a scout? An agent? Analyst? This has been something he's been quick to rebuff:

"I said, no, guys, I'm just enjoying having time on games, watching games, seeing a lot of my friends now because my generation, most of them are now directors, coaches, scouts, agents. So I saw many of my ex-teammates and my friends. So it was really nice to see them, speak about some good old days, and to watch the games, really interesting especially Incheon games. Every game was crazy. Seoul games a little bit different, a tough Daegu game against FC Seoul was really good to watch, and I was very happy to see Daegu friends. So it was really nice. I watched seven, eight games and I enjoyed it and I hope next season, I can watch even more."

'Fan service' was something Dejan was only too happy to provide, too, and he was happy that FC Seoul fans in particular, despite his seemingly still controversial move to the Bluewings, were happy to see him.

"It was a really nice episode. You know, everybody knows many history between us. I hope so more positive than negative, but I felt like I was at home when I was at an FC Seoul game. Even there were some misunderstandings and everything in the past, but I felt a lot of love when I was at an FC Seoul game, especially from my friends, and it's nice to see they didn't forget and showed me love, and they show they enjoyed the time when we were together in Seoul, and, you know, always nice to be back home."

Back "home" and fans haven't forgotten him - not that there was any danger of that. But with Jesse Lingard wearing the number 10 shirt for Seoul these days, the number Dejan wore in his first spell with the club, and all the hysteria, excitement, and extra attention that came with the club signing a former Premier League star, it's comforting for the three-time K League title winner to know that his legacy will not be forgotten.

"The first time I went just towards the game, quickly I realized that they didn't forget, you know, the memories, maybe probably everything is fresh. I watch most of FC Seoul games, and the time we were together we had great moments, historic results, a lot of titles, a lot of records broken, and a lot of good things and good parts of history and good moments we shared together and we achieved together. So it's not easy to forget, especially now when my Seoul is in some process of rebuilding and struggling still to come back where they belong. And really from the bottom of of my heart, I wish they will be there, and they will come back on the level where they belong to be, especially in Korea. But they didn't forget the time when we were making history."

FC Seoul are led by Kim Gi-dong who, in his first season in charge, has guided the club to a top-six finish for the first time since 2019, and are knocking on the door of AFC Champions League qualification. Dejan rates Kim Gi-dong highly:

"I really think that he's the best Korean coach at this moment in K League. And it's not easy when you are coming even from Pohang to come to us. It's all different, different structure of club, different expectations, different media, different city, the main organization is totally different. So, of course, he had a little bit problem in the beginning while he organized himself, but the quality and idea what he has, I think it's going to be okay, it will go in a good way. So let's just pray that this year will finish in a good way, that they will manage to qualify for ACL, that's the first step of recovering FC Seoul, and putting Seoul in the place where they belong. That's the minimum. Every year, it's ACL and of course, to become, to be competitive for the title."

Dejan's K League journey began with Incheon United back in 2007. While he only spent a season there, he has always looked back on his time with the Durumi fondly and admits he feels pain to see the club relegated to K League 2.

"Crying, brate. Crying," he says as soon as the "r-word" is mentioned. "You know, they seem to escape every year, there were two years where they win the top half, and then, even with Mugoša, who scored 15 goals, he'll probably finish the season as the (K League) top scorer. He scored, I think, almost half of their goals this season. I saw everything, I was watching their games. I was on a few Incheon games (this season). That's my team where I had my first introduction with Korea, in K League. I like the club, they gave me a chance to show to play here, to show myself, and I will always look at them like a younger brother, someone who I like.

"I get really angry because they got relegated, that football city. The fans are unbelievable, the pitch, the people in the club, the stadium. Generally, the atmosphere on Incheon games is something what K League 1 really needs need. It's really a football atmosphere. The fans are showing a lot of love and passion, even now, when this moment happened after the game, they were like crying, but nobody speak bad. They were like cheering, supporting even more. So, I'm really sorry this happened. But when you have for seven years, five times, you're almost fighting for relegation, statistically, you cannot save (yourself) every time. So I'm sorry this happened, but sometimes from these things, you can maybe improve and learn something,  and I hope they will, that they will come back quickly in K League 1. I was on the last game, and I wish them all the best. I hope so they will come back next year, and again, I will go to watch some games."

Incheon's frontline is led by Stefan Mugoša a friend and, for a very brief period, a Montenegro teammate of Dejan's. Mugoša's importance to Incheon cannot be understated.

"What Mugoša did, for me, from 34 goals (as a team), I think he scored 15. Can you imagine? And he was involved in five more with assists and shots and goalkeeper saved, (comes off the) defender, and they just put the ball in the net. So in 65-70% of goals, he was involved. That's not enough to stay in the league. I'm not blaming anyone, of course, in the end, I'm just someone who likes that club. But you know, it's obvious that some players didn't do their job from what they were paid, and especially when you are playing in, I don't want to say small team, but a team that is not aiming to be champion. So that means we have a better chance to have problems than to have a championship title race. Foreigners are very important, and if foreigners don't do well in that team when they're struggling, then they have a serious problem. Even now, Jeonbuk, a big team in Korea, the foreigners are not doing well, and they have a lot of problems. So Mugoša did an unbelievable job but others, they had a little bit of a struggle, injuries, cards, form. We cannot hide that that was true, and that's one of the reasons why they had a lot of problems. In the end, this happened."

Incheon will, therefore, join another one of Dejan's former clubs in K League 2 next season, Suwon Samsung Bluewings. The Bluewings being stuck in the second tier is something that Dejan describes as "unbelievable":

"But we must be honest, this is something why K League is so interesting. Seongnam, in that moment when they were like the biggest club in the history of K League by titles, then they get relegated. When the teams who play in K League 1, like Jeonnam and Seongnam, who were really big teams in Korea, now they have problems, but they were big teams to get relegated. So that means everybody who is having bad decisions and makes a couple of mistakes in preparation for that season can get relegated. And now Jeonbuk is one step away from relegation. Jeonbuk - I cannot even imagine to say that Jeonbuk, same with FC Seoul was in 2018, is on the verge of relegation. Luckily, Choi Yong-soo, my father, saved them somehow with an unbelievable performance in Busan. But I'm saying everybody can get relegated. I'm sorry to see that, because for the good of K League, like Incheon a football city, Suwon Samsung, a big, big, big team, a legendary team in K League, they need to be back in K1 but they need to make a good squad, they must have people around the club.

"Fans are already supporting them unbelievably, like attendance in K2 is double, two times bigger because of them. But I'm saying that's not enough. You must have a good squad who can come back by results with good performances. I'm sorry to see that but for a couple of years, they had really questionable decisions about players, about some coaches, about many things, and then one year, you cannot save yourself. It's just going in the wrong way, and I'm sorry to see that one of my ex-teams (like this). But realistically, they deserved maybe one year or two years before to be relegated, but they saved themselves somehow. But like we said in the case of Incheon, you cannot save yourself every year with some miracle. One time this can happen. So, you know, I'm sorry to see that, but they, they need to improve on that, like the quality of the team and then they will have a chance. And they need to be back in K1 which is obvious for the K League, it will be good to see them back soon."

Dejan's K League journey ended with a season with Daegu FC in 2020, where he helped fire the Sky Blues to Champions League football. But now, Daegu are also in danger of returning to K League 2 after a near-decade spell in the top flight.

"What a city, what a stadium, what fans. Sold out stadium all year. I think they're like 80 or 90% of the games at home they were sold out. The atmosphere, really, this is what attracts people to watch K League - the good pitch, the stands are small but very packed. A stadium with a great atmosphere, again, a football atmosphere without any problems, without any issues and bad gestures, just supporting your team, cheering for your players, it's unbelievable."

But there's still an over-reliance on Cesinha who, at 34, is not as young as he used to be. "When Cesinha is healthy, everything is okay there, but Cesinha is the guy who pushed the team a lot, and the team depends a lot on him, and that's something, what is obviously the problem now, in the last few years, they're depending on Cesinha too much, and if he's injured or he cannot perform for a couple of games, they are a little bit afraid or confused, what they can do? What can we do without Cesinha? I'm sure they can, I'm sure and they must."

It's unclear how fit Cesinha is, having missed the last two games of the season due to a rib injury. Daegu still have one more league game to play, but will have the two-leg playoff with a team from K League 2. Daegu would perhaps be best served wrapping Cesinha in cotton wool and keeping him for the playoffs, but in the worst case scenario and he can't play, Dejan says Daegu simply have to overcome this obstacle.

"They must overcome that and do that by themselves. I'm sure they can do it. You know, they have a home game (Incheon, R38), but now it's not important. They will have two games in this playoff. I'm sure they can do it, but they need to understand that maybe Cesinha cannot play, but they have the quality to do that, even without him. He can be just a plus for the team because they will have great options in offense. The guy is playing 90 minutes per game with 50 tackles on him every game. So they must understand his style, that he's a human being, he can get injured. So they need to overcome that and find other solutions, because they have quality, and I'm just they just need to believe more in themselves."

Cesinha cut a frustrated figure when watching on from the sidelines as Daegu let a lead slip to draw at home to Jeju United in Round 36. But as frustrating as it might be to be unable to help your team, Dejan says Cesinha just needs to rest:

"So for him, is the most important to take a really good rest. Even therapies cannot help that just, you know, the healing process of the body. And he's a fully professional guy who is like top, top professional mind. So I think his body can overcome that and heal on time. Because without him, they going to have problems. It's going be tough anyway in this playoff, they need to be really careful about these games."

A hot topic at the moment in K League is the potential switch to an autumn-spring system, with the season potentially starting in August and running until the following April or May. But Dejan has doubts that this can work in Korea:

"I wish I can say something to support that decision and that idea from K League, and really understand they don't have an option to change something. But I'm not sure that's a good idea. I'm someone who played here, who played here in February, who played here even in December in the league when we played the last game for the title or FA Cup or something like, it was impossible to play. Okay, thank God, this year is unbelievably nice weather, and it's still 15-plus. But everybody can remember that last couple of years, even the last 10 years, it was already like zero or already, like freezing in the morning. So it was impossible to play on that frozen pitch. We don't have heaters below the pitch. It's impossible to plan that kind of pitch in November or December. Can you imagine what's going to be if they need to play all December and then in February, when still is like can be minus-10. So I don't know how they're gonna fix that, and I know they have some idea to maybe play games in the south area. I heard something like that. There's some opinions and ideas but it's gonna be really tough."

The frozen pitches make playing in these kinds of conditions dangerous and could lead to injury: "It's going to be very dangerous. You must understand, we are not robots. Players are not machines. They are human beings. Can you imagine how it's cold for us when we need to run and get sweat and then it's blowing wind and it's frozen pitch, fall down, you can get very serious injuries. So I hope this idea will succeed and overcome all these difficult issues that everybody can see, but it's not going to be easy."

There's talk of a near two-month winter break from December to February, but this would likely mean teams would need to do a second pre-season to get back up to speed.

"It's not like you can go and have training outside, playing football with friends. At that time in many countries, it's very, very cold. You cannot do many things. You can stay home, you can spend some quality time with family, but you cannot do proper training with the ball and running. You can do some weights. Still, you're going to rest because it's a long season. And then again, you need to have a pre-season, a short one. Can you imagine? In that minus 10? Again, you need to go away to Thailand. And from 25-30 degrees, you are coming back to minus-five. Many, many issues, but you know, K League people who work there, they are paid to fix that, to have some good ideas for the good for everyone, for Korean football, for players, for the clubs. So I'm sure they will find a way."

The conversation turned to whether K League might need to increase the foreign player quota to be more in line with the AFC Champions League. In ACL, there are no foreign player caps anymore and Johor Darul Ta'zim, for example, much to the annoyance of Gwangju FC manager Lee Jung-hyo, fielded an XI of mostly foreign players when the Malaysian giants took on the Griffins in the ACLE a few weeks ago.

Now, Dejan isn't just any foreigner who played in K League, he isthe foreigner who played in K League - a total of 198 K League goals in 380 appearances, a career in Korea of 12 years with four different clubs. No foreign player has scored as many as Dejan has in K League, nor will anyone ever. Even in this interview, Dejan has talked about the impact and importance of foreign players, but that doesn't necessarily mean he thinks that K League needs more of them:

"Let's be honest, this rule, in my opinion, Please always to say that's only my personal opinion, the AFC did that only because of these Middle East teams, because they cannot compete with Korea and Japan, especially these two countries. They cannot compete without foreigners, just they cannot be on that level, physically or technically. So they changed this rule because of them. I'm not a fan of five, six foreigners, because if you want to improve and keep the level of your national team and your domestic players you need to have a lot of them playing, you must give them playing time, not to bring four or five foreigners, and that is half of the team. They need to have the opportunity to play, especially young boys because that's the future of the Korean national team. They need to know that some older guys will finish in a couple of years. Then they need to find new a Park Ji-sung, Son Heung-min, I don't want to say all the names, but they are like some superstars, Lee Chung-yong, and Ki (Sung-yueng) who were like key players for many years in the national team. So I'm not a fan of too many foreigners. I like the way when it was about three plus one, that's three plus the Asian quota. So if you ask me, I would move back to three because in that moment you improve K League players, Korean players, and giving them more opportunities and chances to play, to grow up like this, it's going to be really tough for them, but let's see."

Ultimately, if K League does increase its already fairly generous foreign player quota - currently five-plus-one with the 'plus-one' to just become six next year - Dejan hopes teams opt for quality rather than quantity:

"I will always say that, it's not a rule that you must do, they give you an option. If somebody wants to bring five foreigners, six foreigners, let them do that. I'm sure the main clubs and the people who think for the good of K League and Korean football, they will not do that. They will bring three foreigners. They will pay them really good, but they will give chances for three top foreigners to help the team, and others will be Koreans. They don't need to have six. That's something that I would do, you don't need to buy six, I will buy three, but I will pay them good. I will bring three good-quality foreigners, and others will be Koreans. And I would play like before and it was working. This is how you improve the K League and Korea National Team."