"The love they gave us here – it’s unbelievable!" - Dragusin on Seoul support

Radu Dragusin couldn't thank fans enough in Korea after he was blown away by their support during our pre-season tour of Asia.

Since our first day in Korea last Sunday to departure from Incheon airport in the early hours of Sunday morning, fans turned out in their hundreds and even in their thousands to come and show their support for the team.

From packing the arrivals hall at Incheon airport, to welcoming us to the hotel, to lining the streets outside our training base, to 25,000 turning out for our open training session, to 63,000 attending each of our two games at the Seoul World Cup Stadium to finally lining the check-in hall at Incheon airport at midnight on Saturday, their support has been truly out of this world.

And that has left its impact on Radu and his team-mates and, as we reflected on our time in Korea, it was the fans who he was most fervent to proclaim.  

"I want to thank all the fans that welcomed us in an incredible way that we felt very much appreciated and welcome here and I want to thank them all," Radu smiled as he spoke to SPURSPLAY following the full-time whistle of our defeat to FC Bayern on Saturday.

"A couple of days ago we were at a gallery art collection. They made paintings of us. They made drawings of us. The love they gave us here – it’s unbelievable. To be honest, there was no better place to train and to get in shape than here. Like I said, they were incredible."

The 2-1 defeat to FC Bayern at the Seoul World Cup Stadium was Radu's first start of pre-season.

Having had an extended break following Romania's great run at Euro 2024, the defender returned for pre-season training at the start of the week and immediately travelled out to Korea to link up with the squad for the final leg of the tour. That was how eager he was to get to work and get into the perfect condition for the season.

"I was excited to come back to meet the guys, to meet the staff to start training but it’s normal. We train at the highest level possible, it’s normal for it to be hard," he said as he reflected on our week of training and games in Korea. "This is the nice part of football that when you train hard, you have good results. We have a couple of weeks left until the first game in the Premier League and we go full throttle."

"I feel the guys are in a great condition. As I said, I’m also trying to reach that condition. I’m working everyday. We are going to be 100 per cent come the start of the season to achieve something important."