News: Osmar Ibanez named new FC Seoul captain

FC Seoul on Tuesday announced that Osmar Ibáñez is to take over as captain of the team, replacing Stanislav Iljutcenko. Osmar has skippered Seoul before and led the team to the 2016 K League championship.

In fact, Osmar's captaincy in 2016 was the first for a foreign player in the club's history. 

Osmar recently surpassed the club's record for the most appearances made for the club by a foreign player in the top division with 255.

A statement released on FC Seoul's social media channels read that the club thanks Stanislav Iljutcenko for his efforts as captain since being given the armband during pre-season. 

Osmar perhaps ought to have been part of the captains' group from the beginning, one FC Seoul legend certainly thought so.

At the time of the original announcement about Iljutcenko in February, Dejan Damjanovic tweeted "Where is [Go] Yo han? Where is Osmar?  2 legends of FC Seoul not fit to be captains?"

Where is Yo han? Where is Osmar? 2 legends of Fc Seoul not fit to be captains 🤷‍♂️🤔

— Dejan Damjanovic (@Boske9) February 14, 2023

FC Seoul have made a habit in recent seasons of changing their captains midway through the year.

In 2022, Ki Sung-yueng began the year as the club's skipper but was suddenly stripped of the captaincy last August with Na Sang-ho taking over and Lee Sang-min, Yoon Jong-gyu, Kim Jin-ya, and Cho Young-wook all sharing the vice-captaincy.

A club official told K League United at the time that they wanted the "veterans" to step aside and let the younger players come to the fore.

In 2023, Iljutcenko was named captain and Kim Ju-sung, Han Chan-hee, Lim Sang-hyub, and Kim Jin-ya as vice-captains.

The chopping and changing goes back to before An Ik-soo's time at the club, though, as in 2018 Shin Kwang-hoon began the season as captain with Go Yo-han vice-captain. Midway through the campaign, Go Yo-han was named captain and Lee Woong-hee vice-captain. Go kept the armband until 2021 when Ki Sung-yueng took over.