Gwangju FC

Choi Man-hee took the first job at a club that had no players, no history and a city that had just lost its team. Gwangju Sangmu, the military side that had represented the city, moved to Sangju, and the metropolitan government set about building a replacement it would own itself.

The ownership model has shaped almost everything since. A club funded by the city answers to the city, which is why the corruption case of 2021 — misuse of funds by former executives — brought supporters out in protest and forced changes at the top.

Twice the way back has come through the second tier, in 2019 and again in 2022, and Lee Hee-kyun was there for both. He came through the youth set-up in Gwangju, played in the promotion sides, then left for Ulsan HD.

The ground has moved about more than most. Gwangju World Cup Stadium, 40,245 seats, held the club from the beginning until midway through 2020, when it decamped to the far smaller Gwangju Football Stadium in search of something closer and louder.

That season ended with a Korea Cup final and a 1–2 defeat to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

The nickname predates all of it: Bitgoeul, the old Korean name for the city, meaning city of light. The main supporters' group carries it too — which is roughly what the founders were after when they wrote a club into being for a city that had been left without one.