‘Arbitrary termination’ with one year remaining in contract with KB Transfer to Galatasaray
Park Ji-soo, looking for a gap
Park Ji-soo, a ‘mainstay’ player in Korea’s women’s basketball, leaves the domestic stage and enters the Turkic League.
Cheongju KB, the women’s professional basketball team where Jisoo Park played until the 2023-2024 season, announced on the 3rd that Jisoo Park will join Turkye Galatasaray.
KB explained the circumstances of the transfer, saying, “On the 19th of last month, we heard about Galatasaray’s recruitment offer through Park Ji-soo. After a subsequent meeting, we confirmed the player’s intention to advance overseas.”
Although KB had one year left on the contract, it decided to stop accompanying Park Ji-soo through voluntary termination and support Park Ji-soo’s challenge at the Mahayana level.
This refers to a state in which a player who is unable to continue his activities due to individual reasons during the contract period has agreed to temporarily terminate his contract with his club.
According to the Korean Women’s Basketball League (WKBL) regulations, players classified as voluntary termination can return to their original club only after one year from the date of announcement.
After three years, you can sign a contract not only with your own team but with all clubs in the WKBL. However, the method of return is determined separately by the WKBL Board of Directors.
KB said, “Before going through the voluntary termination process, we had Park Ji-soo sign a contract with Galatasaray first,” and “After confirming that the two sides had coordinated detailed terms and reached a final agreement, we made an official announcement at the club level.”
He added, “I support Park Ji-soo’s dreams and challenges. It will be a new motivating factor for all of the players.”
Park Ji-soo expressed his feelings, “I am grateful to the club for making this difficult decision. I am sorry and regretful to my fans and colleagues for not being able to be together next season, but I will take responsibility and do my best.”
Park Ji-soo will leave for Turkiye in early September and join a new team. Until then, I plan to complete individual training and national team schedules in Korea.
Park Ji-soo, who became the first player to win eight awards, including the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award at the 2023-2024 women’s professional basketball regular league awards ceremony, announced her intention to advance overseas early on.
After completing the awards ceremony early last month, Park Ji-soo said, “This is the season when my desire to play in overseas leagues grew, even if it wasn’t necessarily in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). In this league, everyone is smaller than me. Also, compared to overseas players, I am stronger here.” “When I think about whether anything has improved, I honestly think there is nothing,” he said.
Guard Park Ji-hyun, who is considered the future of Korean women’s basketball, also boldly gave up her free agent (FA) status last month and declared to challenge for the European league.
Park Ji-hyun also parted ways with Asan Woori Bank through voluntary termination. 고스톱