2025 Season Preview: Seongnam FC

 

In 2024, "The Magpies" had the worst season in the club's history finishing rock bottom seven points away from the nearest opponent. With 66 goals conceded Seongnam had the worst defense in the entire league, allying that with 26 points in 36 games and after four managers the club wants to put last season behind their backs but is 2025 the year where Seongnam FC can finally bring back the joy to the supporters and aficionados?

 Last Season

5 wins, 11 draws, 20 losses; 13th place in K League 2.

What Happened In 2024?

The year started well with some board announcements, which expressed the desire to improve the club's financial situation and achieve better results on the pitch. One of the points the board said they wanted to improve was recruitment, especially of foreign players. It's fair to say that the foreign recruitment improved. Seongnam managed to sign a marquee striker from the Portuguese main division, Leonardo Ruiz, and a bonified K League midfielder, Alibaev, from Gangwon FC. However, domestic recruitment didn't improve, and the financial situation hardly got better looking at the wages of Ruiz, Alibaev, Manzinga, and some of the Korean veterans that were at the club.

[READ: One Out Of Nine, Lee Ki-hyung Out After Three]

After only three games into the 2024 season, the manager Lee Ki-hyung was fired with one point out of nine possible, and the caretaker Choi Chul-woo took his place. Choi managed to put the team on the right track and received an offer to become the manager after 11 matches as the caretaker. Unfortenly, after 13 matches as the main manager he was also fired and Kim Hae-woon, the technical director, became the caretaker manager for four matches until the current manager was assigned, Jeon Kyung-jun.

The 2024 season was doomed from the beginning, without a clear objective the club started to lose matches and ended the season in a winless 20-game run.

2025 Transfer Window

Seongnam FC was forced to change the way they approached the transfer window because the board announced a 50% cut in the budget. It has been a quiet transfer window for "The Magpies" so far but there is a notable arrival. Venício, a Brazilian center-back was bought from Cheongju FC and he can bring some stability to the back line.

Three big departures for Seongnam in the current transfer window, Choi Pil-soo who had a good year in goal despite the 66 goals conceded by the team. Alibaev and Manzinga also left the club, although both had bad seasons in 2024 they had above-average quality compared to the team average. 

Key Player and Young Player To Watch

Leonardo Ruiz is the key player for Seongnam in 2025, the Colombian striker is hitting his prime years and wants to improve on his 12 goals last season that made him the joint third-best goal scorer in K League 2. Ruiz is a tall striker who can score at any given time, that's a great characteristic to have especially when playing for a team that isn't expected to create many chances.

Park Ji-won can be a key player for "The Magpies" as long as he can add some consistency to his game, too many highs and lows throughout the season but he is a versatile player who can play in different positions. His pace is his ace card, can beat any fullback with his acceleration and sprint speed in K League 2.

The young player to watch is definitely Yoo Min-jun. The 18-year-old 1.90m tall center-back who will be debuting as a professional is very aggressive and looks comfortable with the ball, not a ball-playing center-back as of now but shows potential to be one. Seongnam FC doesn't have a bonified starter in the center-back position, it's definitely up to him to grab the opportunity and become a starter.

Biggest Question To Answer

Can Seongnam find consistency going into the 2025 season?

"The Magpies" have been lacking consistency for the last three seasons and that made the team fall into a cycle of losing and wasting money. With more than five managers in three seasons, an incredible number of different formations and lineups within one season, and a different message from the board season after season, there is no consistency in the club. That needs to be answered in 2025 for Seongnam FC to have a chance to perform well on the pitch, regardless of the results.

Reasons To Watch Seongnam In The Upcoming Season

There aren't many reasons for a neutral fan to tune in for a Seongnam FC match as of now but that could change depending on how the season starts. There are a couple of players within the team who can bring some attention to the club, like Ruiz and Park Ji-won. There is also Goo Bon-cheol who was the best player for Seongnam in the season the team got relegated, after that he was loaned to Gimcheon Sangmu to fulfill military service. Will he be able to elevate this team like he did in 2022 or will he be dragged down by the poor moment of the club? That could be a good talking point around the team and could be a good reason to watch closely Seongnam in 2025.