“Inquiries such as ‘When will the 2026 season tickets go on sale?’ are pouring in already.”
The Suwon Samsung office, which recently hired Lee Jeong-hyo, 50 years old, as manager, has been inundated with calls from fans filled with anticipation. A source from the Suwon club said, “We’ve also received a tremendous number of calls praising the hiring of the manager. We’re really feeling how high the fans’ expectations are.” The Instagram post announcing the manager’s hiring surpassed 1.3 million views on the 26th.
Just earlier this month, Suwon fans were in a gloomy state as the team failed to earn promotion to the 1st division. Suwon, a prestigious club with four K League championships, gradually fell into a slump after reaching the summit in 2008 and was eventually relegated to K League 2 (2nd division) last year. Although the team advanced to the promotion-relegation playoff this year, they were pushed aside by Jeju SK and will remain in the 2nd division next year.
However, on the 23rd, the club successfully hired Lee Jeong-hyo, who was considered the top managerial target, completely reversing the atmosphere. Suwon fans are excited, saying, “This is the first time in 21 years since the appointment of Cha Bum-kun as manager in 2004 that we’ve brought in a properly proven leader.”
Manager Lee is a leader who successfully led Gwangju FC, a citizen-run club with limited financial resources and not abundant player talent, rising to become one of the league’s representative masterminds. He achieved promotion to the 1st division (2nd division championship) in 2022, entry into the Asian Champions League (ACL) in 2023 (finishing 3rd in the 1st division), reaching the ACL quarterfinals in 2025, and finishing as runner-up in the Korea Cup.
Suwon fans hope that with Manager Lee, the club’s status will be restored through achieving promotion to the 1st division and challenging for the championship. This anticipation is reflected in various support activities. Some fans are tracking Manager Lee’s return schedule from his European vacation, relieved to say, “He’s finally here,” while others are producing and sharing goods related to Manager Lee, such as keyrings, to encourage direct support. There are even fans who are buying shares of Cheil Worldwide and Samsung Electronics, the club’s parent companies, to help the club’s finances so they can sign good players.
