WK League News

Veteran national team striker Choe Yuri is making a return to the WK League this summer, returning to former team Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels after two years in England playing for Birmingham City.

In a post on her personal Instagram account today (1st July), Choe shared photographs with her Birmingham teammates and thanked those who have supported her during her time overseas. News of Choe’s return to the WK League was also shared by the Red Angels’ official social media. She will wear shirt number 23 this time around — she previously wore 22 at Incheon, but in her absence the number was claimed by Lee Deokju.

Choe previously played for the Red Angels from 2021-2023. During that time she scored 20 goals in 55 appearances, lifting the WK League trophy twice with the team and picking up the WK League’s ‘Forward of the Year’ award at the 2022 WK League Women’s Football Awards. In September 2023, she transferred to Birmingham City, where she has proved popular with fans alongside fellow Korea internationals Cho Sohyun, who arrived at the club at the same time, and Lee Geummin, who joined them a year later.

Before this first stint at Incheon, Choe Yuri played for Daejeon Sportstoto (later Sejong Sportstoto) after an unconventional entrance into the WK League. Initially drafted into the military team Busan Sangmu (now Mungyeong Sangmu), Choe refused to join the army, objecting to the drafting process, which she considered an infringement of personal freedoms. As a result of this refusal, she was banned from the WK League for two years, although this was reduced to one after the KWFF reconsidered their rules and determined that the military team should not be permitted to draft players. A special draft was held for Choe and she began her league career having missed only one season.

Choe is also a veteran of Korea’s national team, having made her first senior appearance in 2014. She has earned almost 70 caps for her country, most recently in a pair of friendly matches against Colombia. Choe was named in Shin Sangwoo’s squad for the upcoming EAFF E-1 Football Championship, taking place in Korea this month, but has since been replaced by Gyeongju KHNP’s Hyun Seulgi after being ruled out of the tournament due to injury.

As the 2025 WK League heads into an extended summer break, eleven-time champions Incheon sit in fourth place in the table. After a disappointing season in 2024, which saw the Red Angels finish outside of the playoff positions for the first time ever, fans were hoping that a new manager would be able to restore the club to its former glory. At this point in the season, the WK League table has begun to separate into two halves as the gap between fourth and fifth place extends, but there could be some dramatic shifts in the top half of the table by the end of the summer as postponed fixtures are played out — Incheon have played only sixteen matches so far, fewer than any of the three teams above them. Two of those postponed matches are against Gyeongju KHNP and Seoul City, currently in second and third place respectively, so the Red Angels could well climb a couple of places in the table by the end of the summer.

In the first half of the season, the Red Angels have kept a very tight ship defensively, conceding only fourteen goals in their first sixteen matches, but they have scored far fewer goals than their likely rivals for the playoff spots. Of their seven wins in the 2025 WK League, only one has been by a margin of more than one goal, and of their seven draws, four have been goalless. Incheon’s lack of goalscoring ability leaves them vulnerable to late upsets, even against teams of a lower calibre, and just one such slip could make a world of difference as the race for the playoff spots heats up. The Red Angels and their fans will be hoping that star striker Choe Yuri can help to boost their goal difference and secure some more comfortable wins as the season reaches its climax.