Teen standout, now youngest scorer in K League history, may just be getting started

The 17-year-old winger came off the bench at Mokdong Stadium in western Seoul on Friday, beat his marker with a burst of dribbling and curled a right-footed shot into the back of the Cheonan City FC net. 

That goal made Ahn Ju-wan of Seoul E-Land FC the youngest scorer in K League history, across both divisions, at 17 years, 3 months and 10 days.

The strike came in the 64th minute of a 4-3 win, and beat the previous mark by just three days. Park Seung-soo set the record in June 2024 while at Suwon Samsung Bluewings, at 17 years, 3 months and 13 days. Park now plays for Newcastle United.

Asked what it felt like to have rewritten the K League record book, Ahn gave didn't even change expression.

“It feels good. I tore it up,” he said Monday at Seoul E-Land's clubhouse in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi.

The record had a buildup, and it came from inside the dressing room. Older teammates had spent days jokingly telling Ahn to his face that he would never manage it.

“For days the older guys were deliberately teasing me that I'd never set the record,” he said. “I'm the type who has to go and do it the moment someone tells me I can't, so I ran with my teeth clenched.”

He has been doing that for a while. Ahn won the Cha Bum-kun Football Award, an annual youth prize, in 2022, then swept scoring titles after joining Maetan Middle School, part of Suwon Samsung's youth system. Playing for Sinpyeong High School in Dangjin, South Chungcheong, a long-established football powerhouse, he finished as top scorer at the national spring high school championship in February with 10 goals, four of them in the final.

At 177 centimeters (5 feet 10 inches), he is compact and quick, and comfortable enough on both feet to play either flank. That combination helped him dominate the high school circuit.

Seoul E-Land signed him in March, and the records started falling immediately. He came on in the fourth round against Cheonan on March 21 at 16 years, 11 months and 7 days, the youngest appearance in K League 2 history. The scoring record followed four months later.

Duty with the U-17 national team has kept his professional workload light, at six appearances. Seoul E-Land has won four of those and drawn two, and his teammates have started calling him the “victory fairy.”

The strictest voice around him belongs to Ahn Seong-nam, a coach on the Seoul E-Land staff and his father. A winger himself as a player, the player's father has made clear that on the training ground the relationship is teacher and pupil, not father and son.

The night of the record was no exception.

“The first thing I got from my father after my first professional goal was a telling-off for switching off defensively,” the player said.

The version his teammates do not see comes later in the evening.

“On the pitch, he's a strict teacher who doesn't let a mistake go,” the E-Land player said. “But in the car on the way home he turns back into a friend, and we work out together what we're having for dinner.”

Seoul E-Land has more riding on the second half of the season than it has had in years. The club is fourth after 18 matches on 33 points, three behind leader Busan IPark. The top two teams in the second division are promoted to K League 1 automatically under the rules in place for 2026. Founded in 2014, Seoul E-Land has never played in the top flight.

Ahn wants to be the reason that changes.

“I'm about 60 percent adjusted to the professional game,” he said. “At 90 percent, I'll really eat this league alive. First I want to get to 10 goals as fast as I can. That should put the team within reach of promotion.”

Asked at the end of the interview where all of it is supposed to end, he did not pause.

“Rookie of the Year, then MVP, then Europe,” he said. “After that? Top scorer in Europe. And then can't I expect to be the first Korean to win the Ballon d'Or?”

BY PIH JU-YOUNG [[email protected]]