After an ultimately unsuccessful stint in Europe, former FC Barcelona youth player Paik Seung-ho has been penning a much better chapter of his career at home. His success with the K League 1 champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors has also led to multiple callups to the senior men's national team. And Paik says there is no secret to his midcareer turnaround. "I have gotten better because I have been p...

With South Korea's World Cup qualifying campaign scheduled to resume later this month, the team's head coach Paulo Bento hasn't abandoned hope of having two of his most important players back from injuries. South Korea's only two active Premier League players, Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur and Hwang Hee-chan of Wolverhampton Wanderers, have both been sidelined. Son, who picked up a leg musc...

With South Korea on the verge of reaching the 2022 FIFA World Cup, players from the domestic league will have a couple of cracks this month at stating their case for inclusion on the national team for upcoming qualifying matches. The first will come in the form of a friendly match against Iceland in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday. The kickoff at Mardan Sports Complex is 2 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m...

The South Korean professional football will have its earliest start to a season in 2022 to accommodate participation in the FIFA World Cup in November, the league office announced Thursday. The 2022 K League 1 season will kick off Feb. 19, the fastest opening to a season by eight days. The 2010 and 2021 campaigns both began Feb. 27. The dozen teams in the top flight will play 38 matches. They w...

With FC Seoul having gone through a topsy-turvy 2021 season that included a coaching change, new bench boss An Ik-soo decided to give some of his veterans extra rest before the starting of offseason training camp. Conspicuous by their absences at FC Seoul's camp in Namhae, some 500 kilometers south of the capital city, are some of the club's most recognizable names: midfielders Ki Sung-yueng and...

SEOGWIPO -- One of the great mysteries in South Korean football in recent months has been the continued absence of Jeju United striker Joo Min-kyu on the senior men's national team. Though he won the scoring title in the top-flight K League 1 last year with 22 goals in 34 matches, Joo has been consistently overlooked by national team head coach Paulo Bento. The Portuguese boss has sidestepped qu...

Gangwon FC midfielder Kim Dae-won is training with the senior men's national team for the first time in Turkey this month. He wants to make sure it won't be his last stint with the big boys. The 24-year-old is one of 26 players called up by head coach Paulo Bento for training camp ahead of two away World Cup qualifying matches. They have been working out since Monday and will face Iceland on Sa...

SEOGWIPO -- After bouncing around multiple European clubs with little success, Lee Seung-woo, a product of FC Barcelona's famous youth academy, has landed with Suwon FC in South Korea's K League 1 with one major goal in mind. He wants to be on the field more. "The biggest motivating factor was that I wanted to play more minutes. I wasn't getting much action with my other teams, and that's why I...

A trio of England-based veterans, including the high-scoring midfielder Ji So-yun, will try to lead South Korea to their first continental women's football title this month in India. The Korea Football Association (KFA) finalized the 23-player squad for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup on Monday. Ji, South Korean football's all-time leading scorer with 59 goals in 131 ma...

ULSAN -- Ulsan Hyundai FC brought in a new head coach for 2021 but ended up with the same result for a third straight season in the K League 1: finishing runners-up to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. It was a particularly bitter pillow to swallow for the bench boss, Hong Myung-bo, who had his club at the top of the tables in the early going and who, to this day, believes Ulsan were just as good as Jeonb...

South Korean captain Son Heung-min has been named the country's top male football player of the year for a record sixth time. The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced winners of the annual KFA Awards on Wednesday. Son earned the Male Player of the Year honor for the third straight time and sixth year overall. He previously won this award in 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2020. He netted four ...

FC Seoul announced Wednesday they have signed veteran midfielder Osmar to a two-year extension. The 33-year-old from Spain has spent seven seasons with the Seoul-based K League club. In 280 career matches, Osmar has collected 22 goals and 12 assists. In 2015, Osmar became the first foreign-born outfield player to play full time in every match of a season. The following season, he was named clu...

A four-match goal scoring streak is over for Son Heung-min, though Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean star still made his presence felt in other ways. Son drew a key penalty late in the first half against 10-man Southampton, as the clubs finished their Premier League match deadlocked at 1-1 at St. Mary's Stadium in Southampton, England, on Tuesday (local time). Harry Kane converted the ensuing pe...

Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean star Son Heung-min has stretched his goal scoring streak to four matches, helping his London club stay undefeated in their past six contests. Son rounded out Tottenham's scoring in the 74th minute of their 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday (local time). Son has now scored in four consecutive Premier League matches. ...

Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean star Son Heung-min has extended his goal scoring streak to three matches, helping his club eke out a draw against Liverpool in a return from a lengthy COVID-19 layoff. Son netted a 74th-minute equalizer for a 2-2 draw against Liverpool at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday (local time). It was Son's seventh goal in the Premier League this season and ei...