Daejeon Hana Citizen대전 하나 시티즌

Daejeon Hana Citizen Football Club (Korean 대전 하나 시티즌 축구단) is a South Korean professional football team, based in the city of Daejeon. At the time of its foundation in 1997, Daejeon Citizen was the first community club in South Korea, not belonging to any company. The club first entered the K League for the 1997 season, finishing in seventh place. In spite of a limited budget, Daejeon won the 2001 Korean FA Cup. It has not achieved sustained success in the K League, historically occupying the middle and lower reaches of the standings each season. At the end of the 2013 season, Daejeon was relegated to the K League Challenge, the second-tier league.

On 24 December 2019, Hana Financial Group Football Club Foundation bought operating rights of the club, renaming the club to its current name.

History

First steps into the K League

Following the foundation of the professional football league (the Korean Super League, reorganised as the K League in 1998) in Korea, there were few league matches held in Daejeon, and such matches that were held were played by visiting clubs. The absence of a local team in the league made it difficult for the citizens of Daejeon to identify with any particular team. However, in 1996 a plan to establish 'Daejeon Citizen' – their own local community club – was unveiled, which meant Daejeon citizens would have their own team to support in the league. Generally in Korea, 'community-club' means that the club issues shares. In the case of Daejeon, although shares weren't issued until 2005 (and the issuing of shares continued into 2006), they were already known as a "community club". Daejeon was the first club that did not belong to a specific company such as one of the 'chaebols' (Samsung, LG or the like) or another major company. This has a very symbolic meaning as essentially the club is founded upon the support of the local community rather than a specific company.

Kim Ki-Bok, now vice-president of Korea National League ("National League", the

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