Team K-League, a professional soccer all-star squad, and Atletico Madrid (AT Madrid), a prestigious Spanish Primera Liga team, will go head-to-head tonight.
Team K-League and AT Madrid will face off at 8 p.m. on the 27th at the Seoul World Cup Stadium as part of the Coupang Play Series.
The event, which was organized by Coupang Play, will be followed by Manchester City (England) against AT Madrid (Spain) on August 30 and Lee Kang-in’s club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) against Jeonbuk Hyundai on August 3.
This is the first time AT Madrid, which was founded in 1903, has ever visited South Korea.
The club finished third in the Spanish La Liga last season and has won 11 regular season titles in its history.
They have won more trophies than Real Madrid (53) and Barcelona (27).
Since 2011, Argentine coach Diego Simeone has been at the helm. Under Simeone, AT Madrid has twice finished at the top of the league (2013-2014 and 2020-2021).
The 27-man squad traveled to South Korea with a number of key players, including Antoine Griezmann, Memphis Depay, and Cesar Aspilicueta.
João Felix and Alvaro Morata, whose futures are uncertain this summer, will also be in front of the Korean fans in an AT Madrid jersey.
Simeone, who was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Korean fans, said: “We will give all the players plenty of time. We will give the fans the opportunity to see world-class players,” Simeone said of his key players.
Griezmann, Felix, Morata and the rest of the AT Madrid squad warmed up in front of 1,000 fans at an open training session at the Seoul World Cup Stadium the day before.
Despite the heavy rain during the training, Simeone and the players responded to the cheers of the fans with bright expressions.
It will be interesting to see if the next Yang Hyun-joon will be born against Team K League.
Yang, who recently moved to Scottish giants Celtic, became a national star last year when he played for Gangwon FC and scored a brace in a friendly against Tottenham.
The Tottenham game gave him the confidence he needed to win the K League 1 Young Player of the Year award, and he joined Celtic this summer to fulfill his dream of playing in Europe.
Simeone, who was rumored to be interested in Lee Kang-in, who moved to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG France), said he would keep a close eye on Korean players in the K League.
“There were rumors that we were interested in Lee Kang-in, but he went to PSG,” he said, “I will see if there are any Korean players who are interested.”
Team K-League will feature Lee Seung-woo (Suwon FC) and Baek Seung-ho (Jeonbuk), both former FC Barcelona youth players in Spain, as well as Bae Jun-ho (Daejeon), who was a key part of South Korea’s fourth-place finish at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup 메이저놀이터.