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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barney Ronay

Hidden from the world, North Korea have nurtured football’s latest golden generation

North Korea’s women’s team celebrate winning the under-20 World Cup
North Korea won the under-20 women’s World Cup final on Sunday without losing a single game in the process. Photograph: Julian Medina/SPP/Shutterstock

They’re coming for you. They’re coming for you. North Korea’s women’s football age-group pathway teams, they’re coming for. Well, pretty much anyone in their way, it seems, after the weekend.

As elite club football pored in microscopic detail over the fallout from events at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday evening, something remarkable, if a little less advertised, was happening in Bogotá. Three days on from the final of the Fifa women’s under‑20 World Cup final, it is worth scrolling back over the full sweep of North Korea’s run to that point, which reached its glorious end note on Sunday night, and in the process opened a new angle on any reasonable assessment of the team performance of the season.

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