The South Korea Women’s World Cup 2023 squad is starting to come together, with the tournament set to kick off in July Down Under – and the Tigers of Asia will be looking to do better than their disappointing showing last time in France.
South Korea managed one goal in three losses from their group stage appearance in 2019, failing to recover from a 4-0 thrashing against the hosts in the opening fixture. This time around, they'll be playing Colombia up first before games against Morocco and Germany: they'll be hoping that they'd have scraped together a couple of decent enough results to go into the final game against European giants not needing to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
2023 has so far been a mixed bag of buildup, too. 10 goals in two games against Zambia in April boosted morale following a meek Arnold Clark Cup which mirrored South Korea's last World Cup (a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the hosts, this time England, followed by two further losses). South Korea were the runners-up at the AFC Women's Asian Cup last year though – so should they get out of their group, they have experience with the heat of knockouts.
The majority of the squad still play in the Far East – but some stars are known to Women's Super League fans. Cho So-hyun of Tottenham shares the appearance record with former Chelsea midfielder Ji So-yun: at 34 and 32 respectively, though, this is likely to be a World Cup swansong for both. Lee Geum-min and Park Ye-eun – both of Brighton – round up the WSL contingent.
Youngsters are coming through in the form of Choo Hyo-joo and Jang Yu-bin – but with plenty of players deep in their 30s, this feels like a last hurrah of the current Korean generation.
South Korea are in World Cup Group H with Germany, Morocco and Colombia, their first World Cup fixture is against Colombia on July 25 and below is their most recent team ahead of announcing their World Cup squad by July 9.
South Korea Women's World Cup 2023 squad
South Korea Women's World Cup 2023 squad: Most recent call ups
- GK: Yoon Young-geul (BK Hacken)
- GK: Kim Jung-mi (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- GK: Kim Kyeong-hee (Suwon UDC)
- DF: Choo Hyo-joo (Suwon UDC)
- DF: Hong Hye-ji (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- DF: Shim Seo-yeon (Suwon UDC)
- DF: Kim Hye-yeong (Gyeongju KHNP WFC)
- DF: Lim Seon-joo (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- DF: Jang Sel-gi (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- DF: Kim Hye-ri (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- DF: Kim Jin-hui (Gyeongju KHNP WFC)
- MF: Cho So-hyun (Tottenham Hotspur)
- MF: Lee Geum-min (Brighton & Hove Albion)
- MF: Ji So-yun (Suwon UDC)
- MF: Kim Yun-ji (Suwon UDC)
- MF: Park Hye-jeong (Sejong Sportstoto)
- MF: Park Ye-eun (Brighton & Hove Albion)
- MF: Chun Ga-ram (Hwacheon KSPO)
- MF: Bae Ye-bin (Uiduk University)
- FW: Son Hwa-yeon (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- FW: Choe Yu-ri (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- FW: Park Eun-sun (Seoul WFC)
- FW: Jang Yu-bin (Seoul WFC)
- FW: Seo Ji-youn (Gyeongju KHNP WFC)
- FW: Jung Seol-bin (Incheon Hyundai SRA)
- FW: Lee Eun-young (Korea University-Sejong)
- FW: Jeon Eun-ha (Suwon UDC)
South Korea manager
Who is South Korea's manager?
Not to be confused with the Manchester City legend of the 60s and 70s, Colin Bell was a Leicester City defender who broke through a couple of years after Gary Lineker but made a name for himself in Mainz of Germany during the Cold War.
Having coached in Germany, been the Republic of Ireland's women's manager and even been assistant at Huddersfield Town briefly in 2019 under the short-lived Jan Siewert, he became South Korea's first foreign coach following the last World Cup and guided them to a first final of the Women's Asian Cup in 2022.
When will the South Korea squad be announced?
South Korea currently have no friendlies scheduled between now and their opening tournament match against Colombia on July 25. The squad is likely to be named a few weeks prior to the tournament beginning.
How many players are South Korea allowed to take to the World Cup 2023?
The South Korea Women’s World Cup squad will be made up of 23 players. Despite requests from some countries to extend the squad sizes, as was done with Men’s World Cup in Qatar, they will be limited to a smaller squad of just 23.
