WK League News

Gyeongju KHNP have today (10th July) officially announced the addition of two heavyweights of Asian women’s football to its squad, increasing the pressure on the teams around them in the league table as anticipation builds for this year’s title race. KHNP reached the playoff match last year, but lost to eventual 2024 WK League champions Suwon FC in a penalty shootout. Ahead of the new season, Song Juhee bolstered her squad with talent, including but not limited to a number of top players from the Suwon squad that beaten Gyeongju to the top just months earlier. After a strong but not exceptional start to the season, KHNP have added Lee Youngju and Emi Nakajima to their squad in a move that makes it clear: heading into the second half of the season, they’re dead serious about the title.

Rumours about Japanese veteran midfielder Nakajima’s move have been circulating among WK League followers and fans over the last few days, after pictures emerged on social media of her spending time with KHNP defender Lee Chaeyoon (Lee Sejin) and Seoul WFC captain Son Yoonhee. Nakajima is known to many Korean viewers for her performances for the Japan national team. After receiving her first senior cap in 2011, she became a regular fixture of the squad, making 90 appearances and scoring 14 goals over ten years. She retired from international football after the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

34-year-old Nakajima left her previous club, WE League side Mynavi Sendai, when her contract expired in May. Before her three year stint at Sendai, Nakajima played for INAC Kobe Leonessa for thirteen years from 2009-2022, having signed her first contract straight out of high school, and during her time at the club racked up over 200 appearances and 34 goals. While at Kobe, she trained and played alongside a number of Korean players including Ji Soyun, Cho Sohyun and current Gyeongju KHNP captain Jang Selgi. She is also well known to fellow compatriot Mai Kyokawa, Gyeongju’s star signing of the 2024 summer transfer window, who also played for Kobe from 2012-2022.

Nakajima is an attacking midfielder who can pass and shoot confidently with both feet, a talent which she attributes to working doubly hard to catch up with male peers who had been playing football for longer when she was in elementary school. She is also known for accuracy in both set pieces and long-range shots. KHNP’s strength already lies in having a squad packed full of players who can score goals, rather than relying on one or two star strikers, but they tend to drive forward and shoot at close range, giving defenders more time to react and sometimes leaving themselves vulnerable to counter-attacking play. A player with not only the ability, but also the confidence, to boot it from the edge of the box could be a very welcome addition to Gyeongju’s attacking arsenal.

News of national team captain Lee Youngju’s return to the WK League, however, comes as a surprise to fans. Defensive midfielder Lee started her career with three years at Boeun Sangmu (now Mungyeong Sangmu), going on to win multiple championship titles with Incheon Hyundai Steel between 2016 and 2022. In 2022, she headed to Spain’s top division Liga F, becoming a regular starter for Madrid CFF for two years before transferring to Levante Badalona last year. Since 2014 she has also made over 70 senior international appearances, most recently donning the captain’s armband in a pair of home friendlies against Colombia. A key player in Shin Sangwoo’s squad, she was forced to withdraw from the ongoing EAFF E-1 Football Championship due to injury, where she is missed not only for her reliability on the pitch but also for her experience and leadership as she guides the squad through a generational shift.

Lee’s shock return to the WK League comes after allegations emerged last month about Levante Badalona repeatedly failing to pay its players in a timely manner. American Michele Vasconcelos, who joined Badalona earlier this year, claimed in a statement posted to social media that as many as ten players at the club had not been paid for the month of May, with others receiving their payments late. She said that this was an ongoing problem, referring to a players’ strike that had allegedly taken place previously. Futpro, an association for female footballers in Spain, put out a statement in support of Vasconcelos and her teammates, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Levante Badalona has denied the allegations regarding missed and late payments. At this time we have no information as to whether Lee Youngju has been personally affected by the alleged issues at Badalona, or whether this was a factor in her move to Gyeongju.

With Gyeongju bringing in this calibre of talent mid-season, the gap between the two ends of the WK League table looks set to widen further, as teams without a corporate sponsor struggle to compete with the transfer window dealings of the more monied clubs. While top Korean players returning from overseas is good for the profile and standard of the league, some fans are expressing concern that the imbalance between the small number of teams has become too pronounced, making it impossible for some clubs to truly compete. With no relegation system and no lower league to go to, there is nothing at stake for the lower-performing teams as the season goes on. Hopefully the revitalisation of the KWFF and increasing profile of women’s football in general mean that this does not have to become a long-term issue.

As for this year, hope may be waning for lower-half teams, but we can still look forward to an exciting race for the top spots. Gyeongju KHNP have made their intentions clear with their transfer business, both at the start of the season and in this summer window, but now the pressure is on to meet high expectations. An influx of talent and experience may be exactly what KHNP need to lift the trophy this year, but the club also needs to keep its younger players in check and give them league experience to ensure success beyond this season and avoid following Suwon FC into a post-championship slump.