Who Are Gangwon FC? A Look Through the History of the Bears | OneFootball

After a record-breaking 2024 meant Gangwon FC qualified for the AFC Champions League Elite for the first time in their history, columnist Nathan Sartain takes a look through the history of the club in a longform feature that includes numerous interviews with Gangwon players from across the years.

2008-2012: The Early Years

As far as football clubs go, Gangwon FC are relatively new. Their history dates back to April 28th 2008, when the governor of the province,Kim Jin-sun, put out a roadmap that would eventually lead to the formal foundation of what was to be the 15th professional team to compete in the K League. By the end of November of the same year, Gangwon had put together a full squad, and were ready to officially debut in the 2009 season.

Led by Choi Soon-ho, who notably managed Pohang Steelers in two different decades, the Bears at first appeared well-equipped to take on top level football. In front of over 21,000 supporters in Gangneung, Gangwon FC won their first competitive match, beating Jeju United (now Jeju SK) 1-0 thanks to a goal from Yoon Jun-ha, a promising rookie acquired as part of the draft. This would then be followed-up by an impressive 2-1 victory away at FC Seoul, where again Yoon Jun-ha would score the winner. Suddenly, Gangwon were on the proverbial map.

With that being said, the Bears would win just five of their remaining 26 games, and go on to finish in 13th-place. 2010 would see the team fare slightly better, and three consecutive victories to finish the campaign pushed them to 12th, two points better off than the season prior. A learning curve presented itself the following year, however, when Gangwon finished in bottom-place, winning three of their 30 games. At this time, no relegation existed in Korean football, so the team needn’t have worried about losing their place in the top-flight, but it was a bit of a warning sign that something needed to change, especially considering they only scored in three of their opening 15 fixtures too.

Another player starting his professional career at Gangwon during this era was Kwon Soon-hyung, a central midfielder who went on to play for 14 years at teams like Jeju SK and Seongnam FC (who he captained in 2022, and now coaches with at youth level), and who joined the Bears with a solid reputation at U-League level. “I made my debut amid a lot of attention as part of a newly founded team, and the tremendous support from the fans gave me so much strength. I feel a great sense of pride in being one of the founding members. Since we were a new team, there were many challenges, but looking back, those experiences were incredibly helpful for my professional career. Although we lost many matches, we also gained a lot from those losses. I’ll never forget the fans who always supported us, even in defeat,” he says when looking back about the start of his life in the top-flight.

On what lessons he took from playing at Gangwon, Kwon Soon-hyung adds: “I came to truly realise how precious the fans are, and that became my motivation to give 100% in every moment and every match.”

Moving on, 2012 saw the official introduction of relegation to the K League, and by the same token the Bears’ first fight for survival. But for some players, the idea of falling into the second division wasn’t a thought that entertained their mind, even when the team slumped to bottom-place in the middle of the year, and at the end of the regular season. “At that time, the team atmosphere was quite dark because of a string of losses. But Kim Eun-jung, who is now the head coach of Suwon FC, and Bae Hyo-sung, who is now a coach at Daejeon Hana Citizen, did a great job of keeping the team grounded. Every match felt like a war. Even though relegation didn’t feel real back then, I remember playing each match desperately for the pride of Gangwon FC,” states former striker Jung Sung-min, who played for the club between 2011 and 2012.

Eventually, Gangwon would stay up under the guidance of Kim Hak-beom (current Jeju SK manager), buoyed by a dramatic turnaround in form during the Final B phase of the season. Winning seven of their final 14 games, the Bears rose to 14th, four points clear of danger, and impressively 34 points better off than in 2011. When asked about this period in his career, Jung Sung-min replies: “Gangwon FC holds so many unforgettable memories for me. I graduated from Gangneung Agricultural High School (now Gangneung Jungang High School) in Gangwon Province, and since Gangwon was my first professional team, I have a lot of love for the club. Even now, I make sure to watch their matches and continue to support them.”

2013-2016: Relegation and Stint in K League 2

Nevertheless, Gangwon would soon find themselves in more imminent trouble. Despite a somewhat resurgent reversal of fortunes at the end of the 2013 season - the Bears won six of their last 10 matches having previously won just twice - they could not escape danger, and instead found themselves set to play in the first ever promotion/relegation playoff. Their opposition came in the form of Sangju Sangmu, a military team made up exclusively of loanees who had actually finished first in the second division that year, but were not guaranteed promotion.

As it turns out, Gangwon’s fate was essentially sealed in the first-leg, in which they were comfortably beaten 4-1. Three days later, on December 7th 2013, the Bears’ first - and currently only - relegation was made official after a slim 1-0 victory failed to overturn the earlier fixture’s hefty deficit.

So, life in the K League Challenge (now K League 2) began for Gangwon in 2014, and they quickly began to mount a promotion push once an initially slow start to the campaign was shaken off. In due time, much like the year previously, it was all to come down to the playoffs to seal the team’s fate. Again, though, this would prove a bridge too far for the Bears, and a narrow 1-0 home defeat to Gwangju FC cemented the club’s second division status.

2015 was an even tougher campaign, with Gangwon finishing 10 points away from the playoff positions, highlighting the difficulties relegated teams can have in earning a quick return to the top-flight. “K League 2 may be a bit behind K League 1 in terms of technical skills and tactics, but it's a league that’s stronger in terms of physical strength and mental toughness. That's why K League 1 teams didn’t like facing K League 2 teams,” former Gangwon defender Seo Bo-min says, indicating how competitive the second division truly is.

Fortunately, Gangwon’s fortunes began to change. In 2016, the Bears consistently stayed in the promotion mix, never hitting prolonged ruts, and always anchored by the fact they were victorious in nine of their first 13 matches. This culminated, once more, in a chance of returning to K League 1 via the playoffs. But now Gangwon were ready to use what they'd learnt from their previous experiences, and duly defeated both Busan I’Park and Bucheon FC on their way to facing Seongnam FC in the two-legged promotion/relegation playoff final.

A 0-0 draw in front of 3,000 home fans then left it all to play for against the Magpies in leg two, where Gangwon would go on to achieve promotion via away goals with a 1-1 draw, holding onto their precious advantage once a Hwang Jin-sung free-kick pegged the team back. After three years, the Bears had realised their key objective of getting back to K League 1.

Recalling the victory in this promotion/relegation playoff, Seo Bo-min says: “It was the best day of my football career. During the 2016 season, I contributed a lot to the team and played as a key player. Achieving the goal of promotion made it the happiest day of my football life, beyond words.”

Of course, this success wouldn’t have been possible without players like the aforementioned Seo Bo-min, who stuck with the club for the entire duration of their second-tier stint, and went on to set examples for other players with consistently strong performances. Recalling these years, the defender states: “Looking back on those days, I think I really didn’t know much, I just focused on playing football diligently. After joining Gangwon FC, I wanted to make my debut quickly. I was able to start in the opening match of my debut season, and by giving my best one game at a time, I managed to reach 100 appearances in just three years. If I were told to put in that same level of effort now, I don’t think I could do it.”

2017-2020: Return to K League 1 and Finding a New Identity

In 2017, Gangwon returned to the top-flight, and in large part thanks to a prolonged purple patch in the middle of the season, earned their first Final A finish. When asked what it was like signing for a newly-promoted team, Hwang Jin-sung, a player who won the K League, Korean FA Cup and AFC Champions League during a decade with Pohang Steelers, said: “Rather than pressure, I felt more excitement. At that time, many great players were recruited, and I was looking forward to the idea of training and playing with my peers and juniors on the same team.”

On how he felt achieving a top-half finish with the Bears in the same year, Hwang Jin-sung adds: “I was happy to make it into the top split. I believe it was possible because of the great teamwork. I have vivid memories of how well the coaching staff and players got along.”

Continuing, part of Gangwon’s overhauled K League 1 ambitions came from the introduction of manager Kim Byung-soo, who was hired in August of 2018. At the time, Kim was a relatively new manager, one who had coached for many years at Pohang Steelers, but only managed professionally for one season at Seoul E-Land. However, with a modern way of playing, affectionally dubbed “Byung-soo ball,” Gangwon began to find a solid identity in a more possession-based, forward thinking approach. Outlining what changed when the Bears’ new managerial hire arrived, Hwang Jin-sung states: “I think I paid more attention to the tactical aspects of the game. Coach Kim Byung-soo is very tactically astute, so I believe he emphasised that part a lot.”

Following Kim Byung-soo’s appointment, Gangwon would finish in eighth place, starting to adapt to their more proactive way of playing once some teething issues had been dealt with. These aesthetic improvements would bring greater prospects the following year, as for the second time in three seasons the Bears found their way into the top-half, this time due to outscoring Gimcheon Sangmu. Notable in this campaign was an incredible 5-4 comeback victory against Pohang Steelers, where Gangwon were 4-0 down until the 70th-minute when the fightback was sparked, then eventually completed with three stoppage time goals.

Although within the confines of a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 again saw the team compete for a spot in the top-half. And, although they would miss out by a single point, three consecutive victories to begin life in Final B would help re-establish Gangwon’s form on their way to an eventual seventh place finish. Unlike the earlier eras of the Bears in K League 1, it appeared there was now a clear direction the club was heading in, and a strong tactical plan being followed.

Thinking back to this period, former striker Go Moo-yul, who played for Gangwon from 2020 to 2022, says: “I was able to learn details that were different from what I had experienced before, and it felt refreshing. The new style of football was very exciting for me, and I was truly happy to be able to work with Coach Kim Byung-soo. Under Coach Kim I was able to clearly understand in detail what role I needed to play and how I should play; that understanding allowed me to perform well.” The statistics back it up too, with the 2013 K League Rookie of the year scoring nine times in the 2020 season, and six times the year after, recapturing the type of clinical edge he had managed earlier in his career.

2021-2023: Mixed Fortunes

So, as 2021 rolled around, the hope was that Gangwon could continue vying for a Final A position, as had become the norm under Kim Byung-soo. Yet a stop-start season began to ring alarm bells around the halfway mark, given the Bears won only once between rounds 10 and 21. There were brief spells of renewed optimism, sure, and dominant 3-0 victories over both Daegu FC and Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the spring and summer months respectively brought about a greater level of trust that things would work out. Yet the purple patches would not sustain.

Instead, Gangwon slipped into a relegation battle, and despite there being just a handful of matches to spare, Kim Byung-soo (who remains the team’s longest-serving manager to this day) departed the club. Just under two weeks later, and with two Final B matches remaining, Choi Yong-soo was named as the club’s new manager, boasting genuine pedigree from his K League 1 and Korean FA Cup successes whilst in charge of FC Seoul.

Unable to rescue the Bears to automatic safety, Choi Yong-soo’s first major task was to be a promotion/relegation playoff against Daejeon Hana Citizen. Making this duty harder, the first leg went in favour of the K League 2 runners-up, with Lee Hyeon-sik’s 51st-minute goal enough to separate the two sides. What followed in Gangneung, however, was rather incredible. Propelled by scoring three times in a five-minute spell, Gangwon stormed to a resounding 4-1 victory, pushing aside any doubts over their mettle. Now backed by a manager with an impressive CV going forward, the aim was to avoid these kind of high-stakes matches in future, and to firmly move away from any threats to their first division status.

In a 2022 interview with K League United, Kim Dae-won explained: “In truth, the relegation playoff is a game that I do not want to go through again as a player. Physically and mentally it was the most difficult game, so it was extremely challenging. I think the biggest factor in us being able to win was not wanting to disappoint the fans who support us. None of the players wanted to get relegated and there was a belief that we could win."

For a stretch, 2022 did look like it could bring more struggle, though. After an initially bright start, the Bears would win once between rounds five and seventeen, while losing on seven occasions. Yet as things often can in football, everything just seemed to click at once. From here, Choi Yong-soo’s men won 10 of their final 16 regular season outings, playing with renewed vigour, higher energy, and impressive potency within their manager’s refined direct counter-attacking approach. In fact, for a time the front three of Kim Dae-won, Lee Jeong-hyeop and top prospectYang Hyun-jun ranked amongst the league’s finest, and was crucial to Gangwon booking their place in Final A once more.

Returning from an over year-long injury layoff during the run-in, Go Moo-yul played his last game for the Bears in round 36 against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. Talking about his time at Gangwon, it’s clear the former talisman has fond memories, with him stating: "I enjoyed the football, I enjoyed the city, and I had great relationships with both the coaching staff and my teammates, which made me very happy. I was able to learn new details that I hadn’t before, and it was both interesting and enjoyable. It was a period in which I grew once again as a player."

With that in mind, 2023 did not go according to plan. Unable to recapture the same attacking chemistry as seen before, an increasingly competitive top-flight environment saw Gangwon struggle for sustained security, and for goals. As such, Choi Yong-soo would resign in July, immediately replaced by Yoon Jong-hwan, a manager making his return to Korea following an extended period in jobs elsewhere in East Asia. Positively, the task at hand couldn’t be simpler: overturn a run which had led to the club winning just twice from their opening 18 games, and scoring only 11 times.

Stressing the importance of increased confidence, the Bears’ new boss initially trialled a far more attacking tactical shape, but soon settled into predominantly setting his team up in a compact 4-4-2. It wasn’t always pretty, particularly when the emphasis shifted to staying competitive in games rather than taking the risks to potentially win them, but it steadied the ship, and slowly reversed the squad’s prospects.

So much so, that despite the fact Gangwon were only really able to push for a better promotion/relegation playoff match, they were able to finish Final B with two victories from their final four matches, and three consecutive clean sheets. In turn, this was just what the Bears needed, as they confidently ensured that a second-leg 2-1 triumph on home soil against Gimpo FC extending their top-flight status for yet another year.

Still, the question started to grow amidst a patchy few seasons: What’s next?

2024-Present: History Makers

Over the course of 2024, everything changed for Gangwon. Completely overhauling the playing squad, as well as the tactical style into something direct, attractive and front-footed, Yoon Jong-hwan created a new-look environment, and set out to achieve major progress with his team. “It was an honour to begin my first professional season with Gangwon FC. The professional stage wasn‘t easy. Every training session was a constant battle, and seizing opportunities within that environment was even more challenging. However, within that, I learned how to better focus on myself, and I gained many positive aspects from it,” explains Park Tae-rang, a centre-back who signed a rookie contract with the Bears during this record-breaking year, and is now risking through the ranks for MFK Zemplín Michalovce in Slovakia.

Initially, though, the year started with promise that was not always backed by results on the pitch. Whilst every one of Gangwon’s first 10 games were entertaining, and performances were generally of a high level, the team could only generate three victories, partially due to defensive vulnerabilities in transition. Thus, Yoon Jong-hwan tweaked his approach slightly, doing away with the full throttle stylings in favour of reintroducing a clearer structure to the team, particularly when out of possession.

This tactical system clicked almost instantly, and the Bearsnever looked back. Gangwon would go unbeaten from May 5th to June 22nd, winning six of their seven games in that period, and even getting the better of eventual league winners Ulsan HD with a tenacious 1-0 victory at home. A key factor in this major upturn in form was the team’s right-hand side, with overlapping full-back Hwang Mun-ki increasingly reliable in his new defensive role, and starlet Yang Min-hyeok regularly blowing away opposition defences. For clarity, these two players managed 27 goal contributions just between themselves across the year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this newfound success led to Gangwon breaking plenty ofclub records, and fighting at the top end of the K League 1 table throughout the summer and autumn. From most goals scored (62), to a record-high finish (2nd), every base was covered, and the team’s fresh attack-minded verve paid constant dividends. “As everyone knows, Gangwon had their best season in 2024. Although they finished as runner-up, not champion, they were competitive enough to maintain their title race until the very end. The atmosphere of the season was one of winning mentality, with every player stepping up and having the confidence to win. Furthermore, every training session was enjoyable, and the level of concentration was extremely high,” Park Tae-rang says when asked how it was amongst the team during such an exceptional campaign.

Onto the present, Gangwon are preparing to write new history. On September 16th, the Bears make their official debut in the AFC Champions League Elite, facing Shanghai Shenhua. They are no longer led by Yoon Jong-hwan, but rather his former assistant Jung Kyung-ho, who was promoted internally and is starting to find his feet as a manager at the right time. His own defensive-minded outlook which began 2025 has been adapted to allow for larger spells of attacking play within games, anchored by summer additions Mo Jae-hyun and Kim Gun-hee, as well as the returning Seo Min-woo and Kim Dae-won. Following four consecutive clean sheets, and back-to-back wins, momentum is on the Bears’ side too.

Equally,in a recent interview with K League United, captain Lee You-hyeon suggested there is composure in the camp at the moment, saying: “Although the Champions League is a huge tournament, the players aren’t getting too excited or getting too emotional at the moment because we also have a lot of experienced players who have gone through serious seasons in the Champions League. So our player’s stance for now is that we just have to follow the head coach’s lead, and then everything else will be alright."

As for some of Gangwon’s former players, what do they think of the team’s arrival onto the AFC Champions League Elite stage?

Go Moo-yul, a previous winner of the Champions League himself, says: “To be honest, there are many differences between the time when I won the ACL with Jeonbuk and now. Asian football has developed a lot since then, and many star players have come to the competition. But since Gangwon FC will also represent Korea, I hope the players fight bravely. I believe for some of them, this can become a huge opportunity.”

Seo Bo-min, meanwhile, replies to the question with: “I sincerely hope that the team I once played for does well. When I was at Gangwon FC, the conditions were tough and it was a difficult time for the club, but now that they’re going to the AFC Champions League, I feel really happy. I hope they can make it to the quarterfinal.”

Park Tae-rang looks introspectively at his experience with the club and how it helped him adapt to his recent transfer abroad, stating: “To be honest, my time in Gangwon was a difficult time for me. Through those hardships, I learned to discipline myself even more rigorously and further upgraded my mentality. This experience strengthened me. I believe it’s because of this experience that I was able to adapt so well in a faraway place like Europe. And I hope Gangwon FC will show a good performance and get good results in their first Asian Champions League appearance this year.”

And to go back to someone who played in Gangwon’s very first season, Kwon Soon-hyung says: “First of all, congratulations (to Gangwon) on qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since the club’s founding. I hope this becomes a great opportunity to make a strong impression of Gangwon FC on the Asian stage with excellent results.”

*Thank you to 이문준 for providing help with translations*