Opportunity knocks with K-League's late kickoff

Delayed season comes at right time for journeyman defender Doneil Henry

Doneil Henry is making the most of being Canada's pioneer in South Korea's top-flight soccer league.

The 27-year-old defender is a starter for the K-League's Suwon Samsung Bluewings-one of the first teams around the world to return to action during the pandemic.

"It's definitely an experience. I am enjoying it ... I'm happy," Henry, a former member of Major League Soccer's Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps, told Canadian Press on Friday. "So far, so good. It's all positive."

Henry started in two AFC Champions League games-a 1-0 home loss to Japan's Vissel Kobe on Feb 18 and a 2-1 loss at Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim on March 3-before the K-League opener at an empty 45,000-seat stadium on May 8.

"It was almost like a closed-door training session," Henry said of the match that was televised worldwide on social media feeds.

"Although there weren't people in the stadium, we knew there were people watching. Honestly, I was just very hungry and couldn't wait to get back on the pitch and be playing some meaningful games."

Henry and his teammates have a fever check the day before and immediately before the start of matches. Only the 18 players selected are allowed in the stadium, with substitutes required to wear masks.

The Bluewings finished eighth at 12-14-14 last season but qualified for the 2020 AFC Champions League group stage as Korean FA Cup winners-and the quality of play has made a deep impression on the Canadian.

"I think the players here are very sharp and technical and very direct. They play very, very fast," said Henry. "That's something that I'm not used to. I like to slow down the game, taking it in spurts where you can change the tempo of the match. Whereas they are always full out, 100 percent."

And unlike Major League Soccer, there are no "designated" players in K-League, which encourages parity.

The designated-player rule, nicknamed the "Beckham Rule" (in reference to the LA Galaxy's former superstar David), allows MLS franchises to sign up to three players considered outside the team's salary cap, either by offering higher wages or by paying a transfer fee.

"I want to be valued wherever I play," Henry said. "I didn't feel like I was getting that in MLS, so basically it was my time to go. I always had in my head that if anything pops up and I can go back to Europe, I'm gone.

"I just want to go where I'm getting the exposure that I need, because I have a bittersweet taste in my mouth about how everything ended in Europe. Because of lots of injuries, I didn't get a chance to fully show myself."

Henry joined the English Premier League's West Ham in January 2015 after playing 70 games for Toronto, with his last matches for the Hammers coming while he was on loan from Cypriot side Apollon Limassol.

Three surgeries in less than three years, including a long-term knee injury, limited his action in Europe with Blackburn Rovers and Denmark's AC Horsens before joining Vancouver in 2018. He played 39 games for the Whitecaps.

There were opportunities to return to Europe before the pandemic took hold, but Henry opted to remain in South Korea.

"Even though everything was open, it was like you didn't want to go outside. Especially for myself, for a lot of time I didn't know where I should go, what I should do," he said.

Henry flew back to Canada in early March and went through self-quarantine, ahead of Team Canada's training camp and two friendlies against Trinidad and Tobago on March 27 and 31, but when those matches were called off he had to go through self-quarantine again when he returned to South Korea.

"Everything's been classy, everybody's been good," he said. "The club has been really good taking care of us."