Seo-In Kim (born 18 April 1995) is a South Korean footballer who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Lexington in

USL League One USL League One (USL1) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that had its inaugural season in 2019. The Division III league is operated by United Soccer League, the same group that operates the Division II USL Championshi ...

Early life

Kim was born on April 18, 1995, in

Seongnam Seongnam () is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential cit ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

to Brian Jin and Jennifer Sunhee Kim. Soon after, he and his family emigrated from Korea and settled in

Overland Park, Kansas Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As o ...

. Seo-In Kim has one older brother who also played soccer at the Division 1 collegiate level for the University of Tulsa and the United States Air Force Academy.

Youth and college career

Youth career

Seo-In Kim was a member of the US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program. He made appearances in the Region II team in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, Seo-In Kim was invited to the U14 US Men's National Team camp in Boston, Massachusetts. Seo-In Kim played for

Blue Valley West High School Blue Valley West High School is a fully accredited public high school located in Overland Park, Kansas, United States, and one of five high schools by Blue Valley USD 229 school district, and has a current enrollment of approximately 1,280 studen ...

. In his 3 active years, Seo-In Kim had a successful high school career. In his sophomore year, the Jaguars won the 2010 6A Kansas State Championship. At the time, ''Top Drawer Soccer'' ranked Kim #23 nationally. Starting his youth career with the Kansas City Legends soccer club's Academy team, Kim was selected to play for the Sporting Kansas City Academy. During his time at the academy, He was frequently brought up to train with the

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

first team and made three appearances with the MLS reserve team against KC Brass,

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

, and Chicago Fire. In 2011, he attended the U17 Generations Adidas Cup. The following season, Kim was brought up to the U18 squad by head coach,

Paul Rideout Paul Rideout (born 14 August 1964) is an English former professional footballer and youth team coach of Major League Soccer side Sporting Kansas City. As a player, he was a striker from 1980 until 2002, notably in the Premier League with Ever ...

, making him the youngest player rostered. In 2013, Sporting Kansas City nominated Seo-In Kim for the US Soccer Federation's Young Male Athlete of the Year Award. In his last season with Sporting, Seo-In started 20 matches and scored 3 goals. Kim was ranked #1 in Kansas and in the Midwest Region. He was also ranked #63 nationally by

TopDrawerSoccer.com TopDrawerSoccer.com (TDS) is an American soccer website that is dedicated to youth soccer in the United States. Specifically, the website focuses on Academy soccer, high school soccer, and college soccer in the United States. The website was laun ...

Duke University

During his time at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, Seo-In Kim made 37 appearances and 14 starts. Kim played in all 19 games his rookie season (2013) registering him 4 assists. His sophomore season, Kim made 18 appearances and 5 starts earning him 2 goals and 1 assist.

University of California, Santa Barbara

Seo-In Kim transferred to

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

following his sophomore season at Duke University. In 2015, he ended his junior year with 22 appearances, 2 goals, and 1 assist. Highlighting his UCSB career, Kim scored a diving header against Blue Green Rivals, Cal Poly. Seo-In scored the opening goal against Clemson during the

2015 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament The 2015 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament (also known as the 2015 College Cup) was the 57th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I men's collegiate soccer. The first, second, third, and ...

. Kim utilized a medical redshirt for the 2016 season due to an ACL tear. In 2017, he played his senior season appearing in all 19 matches.

Professional career

SIMA Águilas

In 2018, Seo-In Kim briefly played for

SIMA Águilas SIMA Águilas were an amateur soccer team based in Montverde, Florida that competed in USL League Two. The team was affiliated with the Montverde Academy. History SIMA Águilas was announced as a Premier Development League expansion team on 2 ...

in the USL League 2. In his time there he played in 5 games and registered 1 goal. Kim was brought in by Michael Potempa in anticipation of

Orlando City B Orlando City B (or OCB for short) is an American soccer club that began play in 2016 and currently plays in MLS Next Pro. Owned by Orlando City SC and based at the Orlando City training facility in Kissimmee, the club plays its home games at Osce ...

's return to USL League 1.

Qormi F.C.

In July 2018, Kim signed for

Qormi F.C. Qormi Football Club is a Maltese football club from the city of Qormi, that currently plays in the Maltese National Amateur League. History Qormi Football Club was founded in 1961 after the amalgamation of Qormi Youngsters (from the parish of ...

of the

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as BOV Premier League for sponsorship reasons with Bank of Valletta (colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Football Associa ...

. He started in 11 matches out of 12 appearances, one being in the

Maltese FA Trophy The FA Trophy, currently known as the IZIBET FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football cup competition that takes place in Malta. The cup was founded in 1933; following a match between England and Italy, played in Rome in May 1933, ...

. Kim was selected as Man of the Match during Week 1 and 8. In January 2019, Qormi announced that Kim was not retained. Kim requested for his release from Qormi FC and became a free agent on January 4, 2019.

SK Zápy

Kim joined

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

club

SK Zápy SK Zápy is a Czech football club located in the market town of Zápy in the Central Bohemian Region. It currently plays in the Bohemian Football League. The club won a double in the 2010–11 season, winning the Regional Championship (fifth-tier ...

in Spring 2019.

Oakland Roots SC

In July 2020, Kim signed with

Oakland Roots SC Oakland Roots Sports Club is an American professional soccer team based in Oakland, California. The club was formed in 2018 by a group of Oakland natives, and began play in the National Independent Soccer Association in the fall of 2019. In 2021, ...

of the

National Independent Soccer Association The National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States. The league is in the third tier of American soccer and began play in 2019. NISA initially used a fall-to-spring season format with a ...

ahead of the team's Fall 2020 season.

Lexington SC

On 23 January 2023, Kim signed with

Lexington SC Lexington Sporting Club is an American professional soccer team based in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 2021, the team will play its inaugural season in 2023. The team will compete in USL League One, in the third division of the United States ...

as part of the club's inaugural season.

References

https://www.kclegends.com/boys-alumni

External links

*
UC Santa Barbara player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Seo-In 1995 births Living people Men's association football midfielders UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer players USL League Two players National Independent Soccer Association players SIMA Águilas players Maltese Premier League players Qormi F.C. players Oakland Roots SC players American men's soccer players Soccer players from Kansas Sportspeople from Overland Park, Kansas