Gangwon FC Information

Gangwon FC is owned by the Gangwon Province Government, so they struggle to attract the top players due to financial constraints. Their main sponsor is High 1 Resorts. The bright orange kit that they use features the same colors as their sponsor’s branding. They have resorted to changing coaches almost on a yearly basis in attempts to find the best fit for the club. The man tasked with leading the team for the 2022 season is head coach Choi Yong-Soo along with club captain Kim Dong-hyun. They will be looking to emulate their best season finish of sixth place, which they achieved in 2017 and 2019. Last season, they finished a disappointing 10^th. Gangwon has reacted by bolstering their squad for the upcoming season by signing Bulgarian Momchil Tsvetanov as one of their overseas players. With the other foreign players Dino Islamović and Yuki Kobayashi at the club, it is to be seen how great an addition he will be to the K-League players line-up.

Gangwon FC History

Gangwon is one of the newer clubs in the K1 League. The team was formed in 2008 and joined the league in the 2009 season. They are the first team that comes from a rural setting and do not have the financial muscle of some of the other teams. The team is based in a sparsely populated area of South Korea and do not have the fan base of the urban teams, but they do have deeply loyal supporters. Their introduction to top flight football in 2009 started with a bang as they won their first four matches. However, they finished their inaugural season in the bottom half of the table. They have had many lows since joining the K1 League and none more so than in 2011 when they had to endure the ignominy of finishing last in the league, but fortunately for them there was no relegation rule in place. In 2012, a relegation/promotion structure was set up. In 2013, Gangwon was relegated to the K2 League. They played in the second-tier football league until 2016. They gained promotion and rejoined the K1 League in 2017.