The South Korean national soccer team will play a friendly against Spain in May, the Korea Football Association announced on Wednesday.

Spain, the winner of the 2010 World Cup and also the 2008 European Football Championships, is currently No. 1 in the FIFA ranking, while Korea is ranked 30th.

Manager Choi Kang-hee is expected to field a strong team against Spain in either Austria or Switzerland on May 30.

Choi told the KFA that the main purpose of the friendly is to check out his Europe-based players before the final Asian qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup.

“The soccer season ends in May in Europe. But the friendly will give us a chance to check out our players in Europe,” Choi said.

Korea hosted a friendly against Spain in 2010 in Austria, where it lost 1-0.

“I believe the friendly will give us great momentum before going into the final qualifying round,” Choi added.

In the final Asian qualifying round, which kicks off in June, 10 teams are divided into two groups of five, with the top-two teams of the two groups automatically qualifying for the 2014 World Cup finals.

Korea is grouped with Iran, Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Qatar. Korea will play its first qualifying match against Qatar on June 8.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)