In a week-and-a-half Auckland City will make their FIFA Club World Cup™ bow with a marquee clash against European royalty FC Bayern München in Cincinnati. As the build-up continues we once again turn things over to one of the stars from the tournament’s only amateur side.
Here is forward David Yoo, in his own words, detailing his journey from Korea Republic to Portugal and now to the Navy Blues.
WHO I AM: David Seung Ho Yoo, 25, looking to make it in the game
WHERE I FIT: Right winger, attacking midfielder
WHAT I DO: Community football coach
WHY OUR STORY MATTERS: We are the underdogs, we have normal lives but we have the same dreams and aspirations as others.
I was born in Seoul, South Korea and I moved to New Zealand when I was nine months old and grew up in Christchurch with my two sisters. Eventually quite a few family members moved over as well and we all lived in the one house. My aunties and uncles were there, cousins, 12 of us from three families so there was a bit of chaos at times!
None of us really spoke English when we first moved so Korean was my first language. It’s a bit of mix now where I speak Korean to my parents and English with my sisters so English is definitely stronger and much more comfortable for me. I can get by with spoken Korean no problem but the reading and writing still need some work!
Although I visit Korea to see relatives I definitely feel more Kiwi. I’ve lived there basically my whole life but obviously I still feel a strong connection with where I was born so both cultures have a big influence for me.
My journey with the game has been pretty crazy really. My dad is really into football and I started playing local football in Christchurch and I then joined the Asia Pacific Football Academy, which was in partnership with Chelsea FC at the time.
That was when I was 11 or 12, moving into a homestay when I was 13 before joining the Wellington Phoenix academy. I struggled a lot with growing pains though and that meant that I couldn’t really train or play for that whole year.
So I decided to come back home at 15 but even then I couldn’t really train. It was knee pain, joint pain and I missed a big chunk of probably two or three key years. That made me question whether I wanted to keep playing because I’d struggle to train even once a week.
Eventually things improved and after finishing school in Auckland and living with my sister there I went to Portugal when I turned 18. I ended up staying there for five years, could finally train and play without pain and really started enjoying football again.
I did some trials and ended up signing for Rio Ave and played there as well as at some other clubs in the second division in Porto. When I first moved over it was quite a struggle adapting to a new country and then Covid hit as well and there was a lot of chaos but I definitely grew so much in that time.
It’s well-known how good Portugal is at developing players so it was a big learning curve training and playing with top-level players and with good coaches as well. Both as a person and as a player I think a huge part of who I am comes from my time in Portugal and technically I improved so much.
I returned from Portugal last year and played for a couple of local clubs. I did fairly well there and then the call came from Auckland and that was a no-brainer to accept.
Auckland City, just the name speaks for itself in New Zealand football with all the achievements they have. I think people in America can get behind our story because they will see we are normal people. We might be the underdogs but we still have big dreams.
When we drew SL Benfica I was absolutely buzzing, just knowing how passionate the people in Portugal are about football and that they are one of the powerhouses of European football.
I just can’t wait to have the opportunity to play them and even though my Portuguese isn’t great it will be good to have a conversation with some of their players. That will be just an unbelievable experience coming up against the likes of [Angel] Di Maria, [Nicolas] Otamendi and all those other stars.
It’s crazy just to think that we are here and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity being able to play in this this massive tournament, going up against three powerhouses of world football.
We probably couldn’t have asked for a tougher group but you get goosebumps just thinking about it and then get to live like a professional, day-in, day-out while we are in America.
It’s no secret that we’re a massive underdog going against these three big teams [Bayern Munich, Benfica and Boca Juniors] and but we want to make our family and friends and really the whole country proud. The aim is to do well, control the scoreline and put in the kind of performances that don’t leave us with any regrets.
Outside of that there’s obviously a lot of eyes watching and you think what might come of that but we want to control what we can and that means giving our all and hopefully getting some positive results.
Earlier in the year we won the OFC Champions League in the Solomon Islands and we won the last four or five games in the local league before we left for America as well so that gives us real confidence.
The team is in a really good place at the moment and we’re probably hitting form at the right time really. On a personal level I recently scored my first goal for Auckland and hopefully I can kick on and grab more goals and assists at the Club World Cup.
This will be my first time visiting America so obviously [I’m] looking forward to it. I’m quite into the NBA and watch a lot of that and I’m a bit of a Lakers and a LeBron fan. It’s the finals now in the NBA so it will be good to follow that a bit over there.
Around the squad though here’s such a buzz right now. It’s so close and hard not to think about the games and the players we’ll be competing against.
I’m a youth football coach and work at a couple of different schools and colleges. Every day is a bit different but with school ones we do that before the day starts so need to arrive at 6:30 in the morning. On those days I wake up around five, have breakfast and it’s then a half-hour drive. We do the coaching for a couple of hours and then head back home before some more sessions in the afternoon. After all that we train with Auckland when we’re all finished our day’s work.
The other thing about the Club World Cup is that we don’t have to think about our day-jobs for that time. It has been great to train in the mornings rather than the afternoon and just amazing to focus fully on football for this time.
