In ancient times,Silla, one ofThree Kingdoms of Korea, had a ball game called "Chuk-guk" (축국;蹴鞠). Though Chukguk is similar to today’s football in many aspects, it features the distinctive rule that the ball should stay in the air during game play with the net also being mounted at a fixed distance above the ground.[3]However, Koreans first saw the present version of football in 1882 when British crew members played a game while their vessel,HMS Flying Fish, was visiting thePort of Jemulpo.[4][5]
After the establishment of a football team atPaichai Academy inSeoul in 1902, there was a footballing boom throughoutKorea. The football was adopted as a physical education course atNational Seoul Foreign Language School [ko] in 1904, and the first senior football match in Korea was contested betweenKorea Sports Club andKorea YMCA at SeoulDongdaemun Stadium in 1905. The first Korean national football tournament, namedAll Joseon Football Tournament, was held by theJoseon Sports Council in 1921 after many football clubs and school football teams were formed since the 1910s including unofficial national teamJoseon FC. The Joseon Referees' Association was created in 1928, and was reorganised as the Joseon Football Association (currentlyKorea Football Association) in 1933. The creation of Joseon FA led to the establishment of several prominent clubs on the peninsula as Korean football began to enter a different form.Kyungsung FC andPyongyang FC, founded around the same time in the two biggest cities of Korea, made deep impressions at the All Joseon Tournament, and developed a strong rivalry followed by anintercity football series. Kyungsung FC also became the only Korean club to win theEmperor's Cup in Japan.[4][5]
SinceTottenham Hotspur signed South KoreanstrikerSon Heung-min in 2015, the club has been the most supportedEnglish Premier League club in South Korea. Previously,Manchester United was the most popular club in South Korea due to South Korean former midfielderPark Ji-sung. In 2020, a poll of South Koreans aged 16 to 69 found that 21.4% of respondents supported Tottenham Hotspur, compared to just 6.1% who supported Manchester United.[6] In 2024, a survey of football fans from eight countries across theAmericas,Asia andEurope found that 42.3% of South Korean football fans wereTottenham Hotspur supporters.[7]
