Suwon FC수원 FC

Suwon Football Club (Korean: 수원 FC) is a South Korean professional football club based in the city of Suwon. Suwon plays in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. They play their home games at Suwon Sports Complex.

History

Early years: semi-professional

Suwon city government decided to create a semi-professional level football club that would link school-level football clubs within the city and Suwon Samsung Bluewings, which is a professional club based in the city. On 15 March 2003, "Suwon City Football Club" was officially formed. The club appointed Kim Chang-Kyum as their manager and joined the semi-professional Korea National League, which was then called the "K2 League".

They won their first trophy in 2004 by winning the Korean President's Cup National Football Tournament. Slowly, they rose to strong contenders in the Korea National League, reaching the play-off in four occasions in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 although they failed to lift the trophy on all four occasions. Finally, in the 2010 season, they became the league champions after beating Daejeon Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power 2–1 aggregate in the finals. Manager Kim Chang-Kyum left the team after the 2010 season as his contract expired and Cho Deok-je, who had been managing the club's youth team, took over his place.

Suwon FC era

On 9 December 2012, it was officially announced that the team would become a fully professional club. They officially changed their name to "Suwon FC" and got an approval to join the professional K League. Suwon FC joined K League Challenge in the 2013 season. Their debut season as a professional club was successful, as they finished 4th in the league and became the only K League Challenge club to reach quarter-finals in the FA Cup.

The 2015 season was a dramatic milestone for the club. After finishing the regular season as third, Suwon FC proceeded to the semi play-off in which they met Seoul E-Land FC, on 25 November 2015. They d