Famous players of North Korea’s national men’s football team

Hong Yingzao was the first North Korean team to go abroad to play for the team. He has played for the April 25th team in China for a long time, which is a powerful team in North Korea. In 2007, Hong Yingzao started his career in Europe. In the 2007/08 season, he played for the Serbian Bezania team. In 2008, he moved to the Russian League team Rostov. A year later, Hong Yingzao helped the team win the Russian League. Championship, promoted to the Russian Super League, and still plays for the team.

Hong Yingzao represented the national team 42 times and scored 11 goals. The North Korean team has participated in two World Cup finals for the first time in history, namely the 1966 World Cup in England and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

In 1966, the North Korean team rushed to distant England to participate in the World Cup. In the first two games of the group stage, they lost 0-3 to the former Soviet Union and drew 1-1 with Chile. In the final game of the group, they would face the old powerhouse Italy. The North Korean team knew that there was no hope of qualifying, so the whole team retreated from the hotel. The room was booked, the flight tickets were booked, and preparations were made to rush directly to the airport to return home after the game. However, contrary to expectations, the North Korean team defeated the Italian team 1-0 with the goal of Park Doo-ik, the core player of the team at the time, successfully qualified from the group stage and reached the quarterfinals, creating one of the three major upsets in the history of the World Cup. In the quarter-finals, they scored three goals in 25 minutes and led the Portuguese team 3-0, but then "Black Panther" Eusebio scored four goals alone to help the Portuguese team complete the reversal. Although the North Korean team was eliminated, Asia's best record in the quarterfinals remained for 36 years until it was broken by the South Korean team in 2002.

In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the North Korean team faced the powerful Brazilian team in their first game. The team showed strong will and active defense, and eventually lost to Brazil 1:2. On June 21, 2010, in the second match against Portugal, the North Korean team lost to the Portuguese team with a score of 0:7 and was eliminated from the group one round early. In the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, North Korea successfully won the ticket to the World Cup finals in South Africa, advancing to the World Cup finals for the second time after 1966.

On September 6, 2008, the UAE 1-2 North Korea, the game was played in Abu Dhabi;

On September 10, 2008, North Korea 1-1 South Korea, the game was played in Shanghai ( North Korea refused to play against the South Korean team in Pyongyang);

October 15, 2008, Iran 2-1 North Korea, match venue Tehran;

February 11, 2009, North Korea 1 -0 Saudi Arabia, match venue Pyongyang Kim Il Sung Stadium;

March 28, 2009, North Korea 2-0 United Arab Emirates, match venue Pyongyang Kim Jong Il Stadium;

2009 4 On June 1, 2009, South Korea 1-0 North Korea, the match venue was Seoul World Cup Stadium;

On June 6, 2009, North Korea 0-0 Iran, the match venue was Pyongyang Kim Jong Il Stadium;

On June 18, 2009, Saudi Arabia 0-0 North Korea, the match venue was the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh.