Gwangju FC's first semi-professional K-League, including Kim Yoon-ho, announces a list of preferred players for the 2026 season
Nov 14, 2025
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The Korea Professional Football Federation has announced the list of preferred players for the 2026 season of 24 K-League clubs. A total of 178 prospects from the youth team under the K League received priority nominations from their clubs. Twenty of them go straight to the professional league.
K League 1 has nominated a total of 93 players from all 12 clubs first. Jeonbuk had the most with 12. Pohang (11) followed by Gangwon, Suwon FC (10 each), Seoul, Ulsan (9 each), Jeju (8), Daegu (7), Gwangju, Daejeon (6 each), Gimcheon (4), and Anyang (1).
In the K League 2, 12 clubs, excluding Chungcheongbuk-do Cheongju and Hwaseong, nominated a total of 85 people first. Busan had the highest number of people with 15. Gyeongnam, Jeonnam (11 each), Suwon (9 each), Seongnam (8 each), Gyeongnam, Bucheon (8 each), Cheonan, Chungnam Asan (7 each), Incheon (6 each), Bucheon (5 each), Gimpo, and Seoul E-Land (2 each).
The K-League rookie selection method is divided into 'priority nomination' and 'free selection'. Each club can exercise its priority nomination authority for those who are expected to graduate from high school among its youth teams by the end of September every year. First of all, the effect of the name will be maintained for three years from the graduation year. The period of leave of absence from college, overseas expansion, and military service is excluded from the effective period. If a player does not join the preferred designated club within the relevant period, the effect of the preferred designation will automatically lapse.
First of all, the conditions for the designated player to join the contract are 1 to 5 years. The basic salary is 27 million won to 36 million won, and you can receive a down payment of up to 150 million won. If a down payment is paid, the contract period will be fixed at five years and the basic salary for the first season will be fixed at 36 million won. First of all, players other than designated players can sign with the K-League club through free selection.
Of the 178 people who received the priority nomination, 10 will go straight to the professional league in K League 1 and 10 in K League 2. They include Kim Yoon-ho, the first Gwangju club to sign a semi-professional contract at the age of 17 in 2024, Woo Jung-yeon, who scored his professional debut goal after signing a semi-professional contract at Cheonan this season, and Busan Lee Ho-jin, who won the top scorer in three tournaments, including the GROUND.N K League U18 Championship this season.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
