2020 K League 1

The 2020 K League 1 was the 38th season of the top division of professional football in South Korea, and the eighth season of the K League 1. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors won their eighth title, becoming the most successful K League club which had the most titles.^[1]

Hana 1Q
K League 1

Season	2020
Dates	8 May – 1 November 2020
Champions	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (8th title)
Relegated	Sangju Sangmu Busan IPark
Champions League	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Ulsan Hyundai Pohang Steelers Daegu FC
Matches played	162
Goals scored	425 (2.62 per match)
Best Player	Son Jun-ho
Top goalscorer	Júnior Negrão (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Daegu 6–0 Seoul (14 June 2020)
Biggest away win	Seongnam 0–6 Incheon (27 September 2020)
Highest scoring	Daegu 4–6 Gwangju (30 August 2020)
Longest winning run	5 matches Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Ulsan Hyundai
Longest unbeaten run	11 matches Ulsan Hyundai
Longest winless run	15 matches Incheon United
Longest losing run	8 matches Incheon United
← 2019 2021 →

The regular season was scheduled to begin on 29 February and to end on 4 October,^[2] but was postponed until 8 May due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3][4][5]

On 24 April 2020, the K League Federation confirmed that they would adopt a modified plan for the season, reducing the number of matchdays to 27 including five matchdays of each divided final league.^[6]

Sangju Sangmu and the lowest-placed team at the end of the season were relegated to the K League 2 for the 2021 season.^[7]

In this season, one additional spot for players from ASEAN countries was added regardless of the "3+1" foreign players rule.^[8][9]

Teams

Team changes

Relegated to K League 2

• Gyeongnam FC
• Jeju United

Promoted from K League 2

• Gwangju FC
• Busan IPark

Locations

Seoul

Daegu

Gangwon
(Chuncheon)

Gangwon
(Gangneung)

Incheon

Jeonbuk

Busan

Gwangju

Pohang

Sangju

Seongnam

Suwon

Ulsan

Locations of the 2020 K League 1 teams^[10]

The following twelve teams competed in the 2020 K League 1.^[11]

Team	City/Province
Busan IPark	Busan
Daegu FC	Daegu
Gangwon FC	Gangwon
Gwangju FC	Gwangju
Incheon United	Incheon
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	Jeonbuk
Pohang Steelers	Pohang
Sangju Sangmu	Sangju
Seongnam FC	Seongnam
FC Seoul	Seoul
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	Suwon
Ulsan Hyundai	Ulsan

Stadiums

Busan IPark	Daegu FC	Incheon United
Busan Gudeok Stadium	DGB Daegu Bank Park	Incheon Football Stadium
Capacity: 12,349	Capacity: 12,415	Capacity: 20,891
Pohang Steelers	Sangju Sangmu	Seongnam FC
Pohang Steel Yard	Sangju Civic Stadium	Tancheon Stadium
Capacity: 17,443	Capacity: 15,042	Capacity: 16,146
FC Seoul	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	Ulsan Hyundai
Seoul World Cup Stadium	Suwon World Cup Stadium	Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium
Capacity: 66,704	Capacity: 44,031	Capacity: 44,102
Gwangju FC	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Gwangju World Cup Stadium	Gwangju Football Stadium	Jeonju World Cup Stadium
Capacity: 40,245	Capacity: 12,000	Capacity: 42,477
Gangwon FC
Chuncheon Songam Leports Town	Gangneung Stadium
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 22,333

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Main sponsor	Kit manufacturer	Other sponsor(s)
Busan IPark	Lee Ki-hyung (caretaker)	Hyundai Development Company	Adidas
Daegu FC	Lee Byung-keun (caretaker)	Daegu Government	Forward	DGB Daegu Bank AJIN Industrial Co., Ltd.
Gangwon FC	Kim Byung-soo	Gangwon Provincial Government	Applerind	Kangwon Land
Gwangju FC	Park Jin-sub	Gwangju Government	Kelme
Incheon United	Jo Sung-hwan	Incheon Government	Macron	Shinhan Bank Incheon International Airport
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	José Morais	Hyundai Motor Company	Hummel
Pohang Steelers	Kim Gi-dong	POSCO	Astore	Pohang Government
Sangju Sangmu	Kim Tae-wan	Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps	Kelme
Seongnam FC	Kim Nam-il	Seongnam Government	Umbro
FC Seoul	Park Hyuk-soon (caretaker)	GS Group	Le Coq Sportif
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	Park Kun-ha	Cheil Worldwide	Puma	Samsung Electronics
Ulsan Hyundai	Kim Do-hoon	Hyundai Heavy Industries	Hummel	Hyundai Oil Bank

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to five per team, including a slot for a player from the Asian Football Confederation countries and a slot for a player from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A team could use five foreign players on the field each game, including at least one player from the AFC confederation.

Players in bold were registered during the mid-season transfer window.

Team	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC player	ASEAN player[a]	Former player(s)
Busan IPark	Vintecinco	Rômulo		Dostonbek Tursunov		Reis
Daegu FC	Césinha	Edgar	Dejan Damjanović	Tsubasa Nishi
Gangwon FC				Takahiro Nakazato
Gwangju FC	Felipe	Willyan	Marco Ureña	Rustam Ashurmatov
Incheon United	Stefan Mugoša	Elías Aguilar	Gustavo	Rashid Mahazi		Lanre Kehinde Gordan Bunoza
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	Murilo	Modou Barrow	Gustavo	Takahiro Kunimoto		Lars Veldwijk
Pohang Steelers	Manuel Palacios	Stanislav Iljutcenko	Aleksandar Paločević			Brandon O’Neill
Seongnam FC	Igor Jovanović	Tomislav Kiš		Jamshid Iskanderov
FC Seoul	Adriano Michael Jackson	Osmar		Ikromjon Alibaev		Aleksandar Pešić
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	Doneil Henry	Terry Antonis		Adam Taggart		Sulejman Krpić
Ulsan Hyundai	Júnior Negrão	Dave Bulthuis	Bjørn Maars Johnsen	Jason Davidson

1. Did not exist in the regulation of AFC.

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (C)	27	19	3	5	46	21	+25	60	Qualification for Champions League group stage
2	Ulsan Hyundai	27	17	6	4	54	23	+31	57
3	Pohang Steelers	27	15	5	7	56	35	+21	50
4	Sangju Sangmu[b] (R)	27	13	5	9	34	36	−2	44	Relegation to K League 2
5	Daegu FC	27	10	8	9	43	39	+4	38	Qualification for Champions League group stage
6	Gwangju FC	27	6	7	14	32	46	−14	25
7	Gangwon FC	27	9	7	11	36	41	−5	34
8	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	27	8	7	12	27	30	−3	31
9	FC Seoul	27	8	5	14	23	44	−21	29
10	Seongnam FC	27	7	7	13	24	37	−13	28
11	Incheon United	27	7	6	14	25	35	−10	27
12	Busan IPark (R)	27	5	10	12	25	38	−13	25	Relegation to K League 2

Source: K League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goals scored; 3) Goal difference; 4) Wins; 5) Head-to-head points
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Teams are split into two groups (Final A and Final B) after each have played 22 matches.
2. Sangju Sangmu were a military team and were not eligible to represent South Korea in the AFC club competitions. Additionally, they were relegated to K League 2 regardless of their final position by moving their stronghold the next season.

Positions by matchday

  Leaders
  Qualification for Champions League group stage
  Relegation to K League 2

Round 1–22

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	5	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Ulsan Hyundai	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Pohang Steelers	3	3	6	4	6	4	5	5	5	5	4	4	3	5	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	3
Sangju Sangmu	12	7	4	6	5	6	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4
Daegu FC	6	8	8	9	8	5	6	4	4	4	5	5	5	3	5	5	4	5	5	5	5	5
Gwangju FC	11	12	12	12	10	8	7	7	7	8	9	10	10	8	10	10	10	7	7	7	8	6
Gangwon FC	2	5	7	5	3	3	3	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	7	8	8	6	6	9	6	8
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	9	10	10	8	9	10	8	8	10	10	8	9	9	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11
FC Seoul	8	6	3	7	7	9	10	11	9	9	10	11	11	11	8	6	6	8	9	6	7	7
Seongnam FC	4	4	5	3	4	7	9	9	8	11	11	8	8	9	6	7	9	10	8	8	9	9
Incheon United	7	9	9	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12
Busan IPark	10	11	11	10	11	11	11	10	11	6	7	7	7	7	9	9	7	9	10	10	10	10

Source: K League

Round 23–27

The league was divided into two groups, the top six and the bottom six, after the 22nd matchday.

Team ╲ Round	23	24	25	26	27
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2	2	2	1	1
Ulsan Hyundai	1	1	1	2	2
Pohang Steelers	3	3	3	3	3
Sangju Sangmu	4	4	4	4	4
Daegu FC	5	5	5	5	5
Gwangju FC	6	6	6	6	6
Gangwon FC	7	7	7	7	7
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	9	8	8	9	8
FC Seoul	8	9	9	8	9
Seongnam FC	10	11	11	11	10
Incheon United	11	12	12	12	11
Busan IPark	12	10	10	10	12

Source: K League

Results

Matches 1–22

Home \ Away	BSI	DGU	GWN	GJU	ICU	JHM	PHS	SJS	SFC	SEO	SSB	USH
Busan IPark	—	2–2	1–2	0–0	0–0	1–2	2–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–0	1–2
Daegu FC	3–0	—	2–1	4–6	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	3–2	6–0	3–1	1–3
Gangwon FC	2–4	0–0	—	4–1	2–3	1–0	0–3	2–2	1–1	3–1	1–2	0–3
Gwangju FC	3–1	2–4	2–2	—	2–1	3–3	0–2	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–1	1–1
Incheon United	0–1	0–0	1–2	1–3	—	1–1	1–4	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–0	0–1
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2–0	2–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	—	2–1	2–1	2–2	3–0	1–0	2–1
Pohang Steelers	2–0	3–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	—	4–3	2–1	1–2	1–1	0–4
Sangju Sangmu	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	3–1	1–0	2–4	—	0–0	1–0	1–0	1–5
Seongnam FC	1–1	1–2	0–0	0–2	0–0	2–0	0–4	0–1	—	1–2	0–2	1–2
FC Seoul	1–1	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–4	1–3	2–1	0–1	—	2–1	0–2
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	3–1	0–1	2–2	0–1	1–0	1–3	0–0	0–1	0–1	3–3	—	2–3
Ulsan Hyundai	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	4–1	0–2	2–0	4–0	1–0	3–0	0–0	—

Source: K League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–27

Final A Home \ Away DGU GJU JHM PHS SJS USH Daegu FC — — — 3–2 — 2–2 Gwangju FC 0–1 — — — 0–1 — Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 2–0 4–1 — 0–1 — — Pohang Steelers — 5–3 — — 3–1 4–0 Sangju Sangmu 2–1 — 0–1 — — — Ulsan Hyundai — 3–0 0–1 — 4–1 — Source: K League Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Final B Home \ Away BSI GWN ICU SFC SEO SSB Busan IPark — 0–2 — — — 0–0 Gangwon FC — — 3–1 2–1 — 1–2 Incheon United 2–1 — — — — 0–1 Seongnam FC 2–1 — 0–6 — 0–1 — FC Seoul 1–2 1–1 0–1 — — — Suwon Samsung Bluewings — — — 1–2 3–1 — Source: K League Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player[12]	Club	Goals
1	Júnior Negrão	Ulsan Hyundai	26
2	Stanislav Iljutcenko	Pohang Steelers	19
3	Cesinha	Daegu FC	18
4	Aleksandar Paločević	Pohang Steelers	14
5	Stefan Mugoša	Incheon United	12
	Felipe	Gwangju FC
7	Han Kyo-won	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	11
8	Song Min-kyu	Pohang Steelers	10
9	Dejan Damjanović	Daegu FC	9
	Adam Taggart	Suwon Samsung Bluewings
	Ko Moo-yeol	Gangwon FC

Top assist providers

Rank	Player[12]	Club	Assists
1	Kang Sang-woo	Sangju Sangmu Pohang Steelers	12
2	Jeong Seung-won	Daegu FC	7
3	Kim Seung-dae	Gangwon FC	6
	Aleksandar Paločević	Pohang Steelers
	Kim In-sung	Ulsan Hyundai
	Manuel Palacios	Pohang Steelers
	Stanislav Iljutcenko	Pohang Steelers
	Song Min-kyu	Pohang Steelers
9	Son Jun-ho	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	5
10	12 players		4

Awards

Weekly awards

Round Player of the Round Player Club 1 Júnior Negrão Ulsan Hyundai 2 Júnior Negrão Ulsan Hyundai 3 Kang Sang-woo Sangju Sangmu 4 Stanislav Iljutcenko Pohang Steelers 5 Lee Chung-yong Ulsan Hyundai 6 Stanislav Iljutcenko Pohang Steelers 7 Kim Min-hyeok Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 8 Cesinha Daegu FC 9 Takahiro Kunimoto Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 10 Lee Dong-jun Busan IPark 11 Júnior Negrão Ulsan Hyundai 12 Oh Se-hun Sangju Sangmu 13 Lee Seung-gi Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 14 Um Won-sang Gwangju FC

Round Player of the Round Player Club 15 Na Sang-ho Seongnam FC 16 Han Seung-gyu FC Seoul 17 Kim Jin-su Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 18 Felipe Gwangju FC 19 Stefan Mugoša Incheon United 20 Song Min-kyu Pohang Steelers 21 Dejan Damjanović Daegu FC 22 Aleksandar Paločević Pohang Steelers 23 Adam Taggart Suwon Samsung Bluewings 24 Jung Seung-hyun Ulsan Hyundai 25 Stanislav Iljutcenko Pohang Steelers 26 Cesinha Daegu FC 27 Hong Si-hoo Seongnam FC

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month		Manager of the Month			Goal of the Month
	Player	Club	Manager	Club	Division	Player	Club
May	Júnior Negrão	Ulsan	Kim Nam-il	Seongnam	1	Cho Jae-wan	Gangwon
June	Cesinha	Daegu	José Morais	Jeonbuk	1	Cesinha	Daegu
July	Júnior Negrão	Ulsan	Kim Do-hoon	Ulsan	1	Lee Dong-gyeong	Ulsan
August	Moon Seon-min	Sangju	Nam Ki-il	Jeju	2	Moon Seon-min	Sangju
September	Stefan Mugoša	Incheon	Kim Gi-dong	Pohang	1	Adam Taggart	Suwon
October	Stanislav Iljutcenko	Pohang	Nam Ki-il	Jeju	2	Hong Si-hoo	Seongnam

Annual awards

The 2020 K League Awards was held on 5 November 2020.

Award	Winner	Club
Most Valuable Player	Son Jun-ho	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Young Player of the Year	Song Min-kyu	Pohang Steelers
Top goalscorer	Júnior Negrão	Ulsan Hyundai
Top assist provider	Kang Sang-woo	Sangju Sangmu Pohang Steelers
Manager of the Year	Kim Gi-dong	Pohang Steelers

Position	Best XI
Goalkeeper	Jo Hyeon-woo (Ulsan)
Defenders	Kim Tae-hwan (Ulsan)	Kwon Kyung-won (Sangju)	Hong Jeong-ho (Jeonbuk)	Kang Sang-woo (Sangju, Pohang)
Midfielders	Aleksandar Paločević (Pohang)	Cesinha (Daegu)	Son Jun-ho (Jeonbuk)	Han Kyo-won (Jeonbuk)
Forwards	Stanislav Iljutcenko (Pohang)		Júnior Negrão (Ulsan)

Attendance

Attendants who entered with free ticket are not counted.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	16,808	10,535	0	1,200	−91.4%†
2	Ulsan Hyundai	16,352	6,973	0	1,168	−87.9%†
3	FC Seoul	13,047	5,485	0	931	−91.9%†
4	Daegu FC	7,265	3,030	0	558	−94.8%†
5	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	7,072	2,912	0	544	−93.8%†
6	Incheon United	6,849	3,428	0	526	−93.8%†
7	Pohang Steelers	6,996	3,280	0	499	−94.1%†
8	Seongnam FC	5,066	1,655	0	361	−93.5%†
9	Gangwon FC	2,978	1,967	0	212	−92.6%†
10	Gwangju FC	1,711	860	0	131	−95.8%†
11	Busan IPark	1,416	830	0	108	−97.4%†
12	Sangju Sangmu	1,080	666	0	83	−96.5%†
	League total	86,640	10,535	0	534	−93.3%†

Updated to games played on 1 December 2020
Source: K League
Notes:
^† Teams that played previous season in K League 2.

See also

• 2020 in South Korean football
• 2020 Korean FA Cup