Transfer Case File: Park Si-hu, Chungnam Asan (K League 2) → FC Arouca

Correction, 2026-10-15: An earlier version gave Park’s age at the transfer as 19 and his position as forward. He was born on 18 August 2007, so he was 18 when Arouca announced the move on 4 July 2026, and he plays as a winger on either flank.

This is a Transfer Case File, a structured record of one move from Japan or Korea to Europe. Park Si-hu’s case is still open, so this file records what is known now and what we will check later. It does not make a prediction.

The signing

Arouca announced the signing on 4 July 2026. Park joined permanently from Chungnam Asan of K League 2 on a contract running to June 2031, and Arouca paid his buyout. The fee was reported at around €500,000; neither club confirmed a figure, so we treat it as reported. He was reported to have taken the number 77.

He is Chungnam Asan’s first player to move to a European club. In our dataset he is also the only Korean case that starts in the second tier; every other Korean move we have logged came from K League 1.

Firsts at Chungnam Asan

Most of what Park achieved in Korea was measured in firsts rather than totals. In July 2025 he signed the club’s first semi-professional contract. He became Chungnam Asan’s youngest player to appear and youngest to score, and in K League 2 history he ranks seventh among the youngest to make an appearance and joint third among the youngest to score. In November 2025 he received the star award in the football category of the Futures Star Awards.

His senior record covers two K League 2 seasons: nine appearances and two goals in 2025, and nine appearances and one goal in 2026 before he left. We do not have minutes for those appearances, so we cannot calculate per-90 rates and do not estimate them.

What Arouca were buying

Eighteen appearances across two seasons is a small base for a five-year contract. That is not a criticism of the move. A club that pays a buyout for an 18-year-old from the second tier is buying age and projection, and the length of the contract shows Arouca expect to develop him rather than judge him quickly.

Lee Jong-min, then a scout at Daejeon Hana Citizen and now the club’s technical director, singled out pace as Park’s main weapon: he beats defenders and breaks lines, finishes and links play, delivers crosses after going outside, and works back without the ball. That is a description of the profile Arouca paid for, not yet evidence of how it translates to the Primeira Liga.

Arouca finished eighth in the 2025-26 Primeira Liga, with 12 wins, six draws and 16 defeats for 42 points. Lee Hyun-ju, also Korean, is in the same squad. Neither fact tells us how much Park will play, but both describe the setting he joined: a mid-table top-division side with a Korean teammate already in place.

What we will check, and when

The case is labelled TRACKING, which in our dataset means less than a year has passed since the move, too soon to judge. We will resolve it after July 2027 on what has happened by then: regular minutes and a role at Arouca, a loan elsewhere, or a return to Korea. Until then this file records the move, not a verdict on it.

How it compares

Of the four players compared here, Park is the youngest and the only one whose first European move was permanent. Gaku Nawata went to Belgium on a loan with an option at 20. Shumpei Fukahori went to Portugal on a six-month loan at 20 and returned after four league appearances. Kyosuke Tagawa started his European spell with a loan to Santa Clara, in the league Park has now joined, and made 26 league appearances there. Park arrived with the least senior football behind him and the longest commitment from the buying club.