2025 Season Review: Suwon Samsung Bluewings | OneFootball

Suwon Samsung Bluewings failed to achieve promotion back to K League 1 for the second straight season. This failure will haunt them. After a winter of heavy recruitment and sky-high expectations, Suwon started poorly, never threatened Incheon United, and ultimately bowed out meekly.

What Went Well

Suwon finished 2025 in second position in K League 2, up from sixth the previous year. This was thanks to the offensive reinforcements added over the winter. As a result, the Bluewings went from scoring just 46 goals in 2024 to 76 this campaign (even accounting for three extra matches, that’s a sizeable return). It’s worth remembering that relegation in 2023 and missing out on the playoffs in 2024 both came down to goals scored. In each season, Suwon finished level on points with another team but ended below their rivals.

Unfortunately, that’s about it. It doesn’t matter how many goals they scored — or that attendances increased again — because the end result was a failure to secure promotion.

What Didn't Go Well

Sifting through the carcass of a disappointing season was always going to be tough. The word count — thankfully — denies me the opportunity for a long-winded rant, but what I can say with confidence is that 2025 did not live up to expectations. In came Stanislav Iljutcenko, Kwon Wan-kyu, Bruno Silva, Lee Gyu-sung, Choi Young-jun, and Jeong Dong-yoon, all with close to 1,000 K League appearances between them. Suwon didn’t stop there; they added more recognisable talent as the season progressed, and yet it all ended with a whimper.

The first area to investigate is defence and goalkeeping. In 2024, Suwon conceded 34 goals — the lowest in the league — across 36 matches. A healthy return. After years of striking failure, the club invested heavily in attack, but not at the expense of defence. And yet, 34 conceded goals became 50 this season, dropping them from the league’s best defensive record to ninth. Even with experience, they looked shaky, disjointed, and short of top-end pace. Goalkeeper and captain Yang Hyeong-mo struggled with form and injury, while his replacement, Kim Min-jun, has a reckless habit of straying too far off his line.

It doesn’t end there. Suwon didn’t put all their eggs in the Iljutcenko basket, but when he lost form at exactly the wrong time, the Bluewings were in serious trouble. The vice-captain failed to score in his final nine appearances — a run stretching back to October 4 — and despite leading the side out against Jeju in both legs, he was replaced at half-time in the second leg. When they needed him most, he didn’t produce.

Finally, there’s former manager Byun Sung-hwan. Byun was head coach for half of the 2024 season and oversaw pre-season. Confidence was high going into 2025 and, backed by strong recruitment, Suwon expected promotion. Instead, the season started poorly and never recovered. The Bluewings didn’t reach second place until week 14 and were often closer to dropping to third than catching Incheon at the top. One major weakness Byun never fixed was Suwon’s crippling tendency to concede first. Across 41 league and playoff matches, the Bluewings conceded first 19 times. They came from behind to win just three of those. No matter how you dress it up, that’s shocking.

Young Player of the Year

Lee Geon-hee celebrates his only goal of the season.

In a surprisingly weak field, Lee Geon-hee is the undisputed winner. The right-back made 27 appearances for Suwon, totalling 2,101 minutes. The 20-year-old earned underage international caps on the back of his club performances, and the Bluewings faithful will be demanding he nails down the position at the start of 2026. Lee would have expected limited minutes when Suwon signed former Incheon United defender Jeong Dong-yoon, and after failing to feature in the opening four matches, he could have been forgiven for thinking his season would play out that way.

Lee emerged in week five against Jeonnam Dragons, kick-starting a run of nine straight starts. The next time he missed a match was against Incheon United in June — a game Suwon lost. Incredibly, all three of Suwon’s defeats up to that point came when Lee was absent. In his first 11 appearances, Suwon won eight and drew three. He was recalled a week later, and Suwon won 3-1. Tall, quick, and comfortable on the ball, Lee has plenty of attributes. He needs more confidence in possession and must be braver in taking chances, but the future is bright.

Team MVP

Matheus Serafim’s form was so good that when he limped out of the 2-2 draw with Jeonnam Dragons in October, Suwon fans genuinely wondered if their promotion bid was about to derail. Serafim returned before season’s end — though how fit he was across the two legs against Jeju SK remains unclear. The Brazilian finished the regular season with 13 goals (joint-most at the club) and four assists in 37 matches. Not bad for a wide forward rather than a traditional number nine.

Yet, oddly, we now refer to Serafim as a former Suwon Bluewing. Amid a tornado of GOODBYEs and THANK YOUs posted on social media before Christmas, his name appeared. I’ll admit I wasn’t convinced when he first arrived, but he settled quickly after opening his account against Bucheon in April. Serafim collected four goals and two assists during a brilliant five-match spell before injury, single-handedly keeping the Bluewings in the title hunt. It wasn’t to be, and the number 70 leaves behind an irritated fanbase.

Most Disappointing Player

This was the hardest category to fill. Ask me after the Jeju defeat and you’d likely get a different answer, because there were so many candidates across the squad. I was tempted to choose Kwon Wan-kyu, but after much deliberation, I settled on another Brazilian winger: Bruno Silva.

On his day, Bruno is one of the most dangerous wide players in K League 2. He starred for Seoul E-Land during their unlikely promotion push in 2024, so when Suwon announced his signing, fans were understandably ecstatic. After years of struggling for goals, Suwon had added a player who scored 11 in 24 matches, alongside Iljutcenko.

But the injury warnings were there. During a 17-week spell with Seoul, Bruno missed 10 matches, and the pattern repeated in Suwon. Twenty appearances from a marquee signing is a poor return, even if not entirely his fault. He missed three months with a cartilage injury, and when he returned, he wasn’t the same player. Bruno made little impact in the first leg of the playoff against Jeju and subsequently lost his place in Seogwipo to Park Ji-won. By the time he entered the second leg, the aggregate score was already 3-0. This isn’t to say he’s a bad player — his opening weeks were positive — but when Suwon needed him most, he wasn’t near his best.

Most Important Decision of the Off-Season

Suwon have already made the most important decision of their off-season, and arguably of the entire country. The recruitment of former Gwangju FC manager Lee Jung-hyo didn’t just send a statement — it blew the doors in. The man many pundits consider the best Korean manager has stepped down a division to take charge of Suwon Samsung Bluewings. He arrives with a K League 2 title, a third-place K League 1 finish, a domestic cup final, and an ACL Elite quarter-final on his résumé — all achieved with a small-market club.

There will be criticism of his decision, but viewed logically, the opportunity to restore one of Korea’s biggest clubs — and likely for a hefty pay cheque — is too good to turn down. Suwon are a giant with a massive following. In 2025, they recorded the fourth-highest average attendance in the country and the largest away support, despite playing in the second division. The Bluewings faithful have been crying out for a messiah to halt this slow slide into mediocrity. If Lee Jung-hyo isn’t the man, who is?

The Messiah? We're about to find out.

A day before confirming his appointment, Suwon announced a raft of high-profile departures. Lee must now rebuild the squad ahead of pre-season and find players suited to his philosophy. As one journalist told me after Gwangju reached the Korea Cup final, Lee wants “a centre-back who handles the ball best in a modified three-back system, to dominate possession, or to dribble boldly forward to disrupt the opponent’s shape. The numerical-advantage tactic using forward pressure and opposite-footed full-backs is also something that can work beyond the K League.”

Speak to Gwangju players, past and present, and they describe a man with such “strong resolve that it feels like even if you pricked him with a needle, not a drop of blood would come out. The manager is both cold-headed and passionate.”

For a review that drifted dangerously close to desperation, Suwon Samsung have left a magnificent present under the Christmas tree. A bitter, mutinous fanbase has been rejuvenated in a way few would have expected weeks ago. If this project works, Lee Jung-hyo will be granted sainthood. Don’t bet against him.