Women’s volleyball’s ‘best friends’ Kim Yeon-kyung and Kim Su-ji will unite in one team for the first time since their professional debut.

On the 19th, Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders club signed an FA contract with veteran middle blocker Kim Su-ji on the official website on the condition of a contract period of 3 years and an annual fee of 310 million won (annual salary of 270 million won, option of 40 million won). announced that it Suji Kim, who played an active part in Heungkuk Life Insurance for three seasons from the 2014-2015 season to the 2016-2017 season and took off as a top middle blocker, went through IBK Industrial Bank Altos and wore the pink uniform of Heungkuk Life Insurance again in six years.

The reason Kim Su-ji’s transfer to Heungkuk Life Insurance became a hot topic is because of her reunion with Kim Yeon-kyung. Kim Yeon-kyung and Kim Su-ji, who spent their school days together from Ansan Seo Elementary School to Wongok Middle School and Suwon Hanil Jeonsan Girls’ High School (now Hanbom High School), have never played on the same team for 18 seasons after joining the pros. However, as Kim Yeon-kyung remained at Heungkuk Life Insurance and Kim Su-ji returned to Heungkuk Life Insurance, Kim Yeon-kyung and Kim Su-ji, a ‘best friend’ with a relationship of over 25 years, became active wearing the same uniform for the first time after her professional debut.

Heungkuk, who left the’Empress’, also filled the central weakness.

On the 16th, Heungkuk Life Insurance contracted with Kim Yeon-kyung,’Volleyball Empress’, who obtained FA qualification for the first time in the V-League, for a one-year contract period and a total compensation of 775 million won (annual salary of 475 million won). won, and an option of 300 million won). After deciding to extend her active service, Kim Yeon-kyung, who received love calls from several clubs including Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate and Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers, chose to remain at Heungkuk Life Insurance with the support of fans and persuasion from the club, including coach Marcello Abondanza.

With Kim Yeon-kyung remaining, the Heungkuk Life Insurance team and fans were delighted as if Heungkuk Life’s power had been greatly strengthened, but in fact, for Heungkuk Life, Kim Yeon-kyung’s stay was a matter of ‘survival’, not strength. Currently, a new franchise star named Lee Jae-young is involved in a school violence incident and has virtually left the volleyball world, and Heungkuk Life Insurance is in a situation where there is no ‘successor’ to succeed Kim Yeon-kyung’s next generation. In such a situation, if even Kim Yeon-kyung left the team, it was obvious that Heungkuk Life Insurance would suffer a tremendous power loss.

In fact, Heungkuk Life Insurance made the achievement of winning the championship runner-up thanks to Kim Yeon-kyung’s performance and leadership, even when the power was significantly weakened in the middle of the season due to the’twin incident’ in the 2020-2021 season. However, after Kim Yeon-kyung left for the Chinese league after the 2020-2021 season, Heungkuk Life Insurance, who lost the center of the team, fell to 6th out of 7 clubs in the 2021-2022 season. The only team ranked lower than Heungkuk Life Insurance was Pepper Savings Bank, a new team that only won 3 wins in 31 games.

Since Heungkuk Life Insurance felt the helplessness of the team without Kim Yeon-kyung, ‘Kim Yeon-kyung’s stay’ in this FA market was a desperate mission to risk the life and death of the team. In the end, Heungkuk Life Insurance succeeded in capturing the best player in the history of Korean women’s volleyball with the one-year contract Kim Yeon-kyung wanted and the highest salary in the women’s division. There are still variables such as foreign players and Asian quotas, but at least it means that she has maintained her power, which won the regular league championship and runner-up in the championship in the 2022-2023 season.

However, Heungkuk Life Insurance was defeated by Korea Expressway Corporation High Pass in the 2022-2023 season following the 2020-2021 season in which Kim Yeon-kyung played an active part, and the championship championship was frustrated. In order for Heungkuk Life Insurance to build a true winning power next season, it was necessary to reinforce the power of the position that was lacking, but Heungkuk Life Insurance’s weakness was also a middle blocker to be paired with Joo-ah Lee. And Heungkuk Life Insurance recruited veteran middle blocker Kim Su-ji, one of the main players in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics semifinals, in its place.

‘Best friend’ I met 18 years after graduating from high school

Kim Su-ji, who went through먹튀검증 elementary, middle, and high school with Kim Yeon-kyung, was nominated by Hyundai Engineering & Construction as the third overall pick in the 2005-2006 rookie draft. In fact, until the time of Hyundai E&C, it was evaluated that it could not make use of its height of 188cm due to its excellent mobile attack but relatively weak blocking (in addition, the same team had Yang Hyo-jin, the ‘blocking queen’). However, Suji Kim transferred to Heungkuk Life Insurance ahead of the 2014-2015 season and began to blossom his talent in earnest.

Suji Kim’s blocking ability, which was pointed out as a weakness in Heungkuk Life Insurance, which has many young players, has greatly improved. In particular, in the 2016-2017 season, he recorded 0.64 blocking per set (4th place) and was selected as the BEST7 in the middle blocker category for the first time since his debut. Kim Su-ji, who started playing as a key middle blocker in the national team following Jung Dae-young (GS Caltex KIXX) in the mid-2010s, obtained FA status again after the 2016-2017 season and chose to transfer to Industrial Bank of Korea. 

However, Kim Su-ji, who wore an Altos uniform at the end of the ‘Era of the IBK Dynasty’, which was advancing to the championship game for 6 consecutive seasons, could only step on the spring volleyball stage twice during the 6 seasons that she was active at IBK. In fact, Kim Soo-ji has never been listed in the BEST7 in the middle blocker category, even though she has been consistently active every season since transferring to Industrial Bank of Korea. After the 2022-2023 season ended, Kim Su-ji, who obtained free agent status again, chose to return to Heungkuk Life Insurance, where his friend Kim Yeon-kyung belongs.

Heungkuk Life Insurance has a young and capable middle blocker named Lee Joo-ah, who has already spent 5 seasons in the pro game. However, it is true that Kim Na-hee, who played an active part as Lee Joo-ah’s partner in the 2022-2023 season, was not a big threat to the opponent in blocking due to her short height (178 cm) as a middle blocker. However, if Kim Su-ji, who recorded 0.69 (5th place) blocking per set in the 2022-2023 season regular league, joins, Heungkuk Life Insurance’s height is not inferior to Korea Expressway Corporation or Hyundai E&C.

Even when Kim Yeon-kyung and Kim Su-ji were active in different teams, they showed off their friendship by exchanging jokes with each other before and after the game, giving volleyball fans a different kind of fun. From the upcoming 2023-2024 season, the two players will wear the same uniform for the first time in 18 years since high school and will play on the court to win the championship of Heungkuk Life Insurance. This is why Kim Soo-ji’s transfer to Heungkuk Life Insurance is even more special to volleyball fans among the transfers of various free agents.