Kim Jong Un led the celebrations, and players wept with joy, as Asian club soccer’s newest women’s champions toasted a continental conquest that caps a remarkable run for North Korea’s female footballers.
Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women’s FC lifted the Asian Champions League trophy last month, on enemy soil in South Korea. Their reclusive nation is also reigning world champion in under-17s and under-20s women’s soccer.
At a celebratory exhibition match last week in the capital, under the watchful eye of the supreme leader, Naegohyang faced off against the under-17s team, who just added an Asian Cup to their impressive array of silverware, trouncing Japan 5-1 in the final.
They were hailed as “trustworthy women” and “proud daughters of the motherland.”
According to official news agency KCNA, the Naegohyang players “stressed that the loving care and benevolence of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un” was “encouraging all of them to more remarkable sports successes.”
Next up for many of these players is the senior Women’s World Cup in Brazil. And some pundits are asking if a shot at global glory could be on the cards for Kim’s athletes.
Sports-loving Kim has re-committed to developing athletic talent as a tool to promote North Korea internationally, according to a report by South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
And while the country’s secretive nature makes it hard to know exactly what drives its prolific women’s soccer programme, CNN has spoken to coaches and players who have worked with its teams – and lined up against them – to put together a picture of how they do it.
When captain Kim Kyong-yong scored the winning goal against Japan’s Tokyo Verdy in last month’s Champions League final, it was her latest step on a journey that started more than a decade ago at the Pyongyang International Football School.
Founded in 2013 to fulfil Kim Jong Un’s sporting ambitions, the elite youth academy has since trained hundreds of girls and boys aged between seven and 17 , many of whom would represent the country at international level, according to state news agency KCNA. Among them is Han Kwang Song , a forward for the men’s national team, who played for a time in Italy.
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Now 24, Kim Kyong Yong is a model product of the highly controlled youth development system: starting soccer at 10; representing her nation across age grades; becoming a star striker for the senior line-up; and leading her club to continental silverware.
“Although our players still lack experience in senior-level international competitions, they have grown significantly as a team,” Kim said after scooping the Most Valuable Player award in this year’s Champions League.
“Through this competition, we will work hard to overcome our shortcomings and achieve strong results in future world-class competitions.”
British coach Stephen Constantine, one of a few instructors from world governing body FIFA invited in 2018 to educate coaches in North Korea, noted their players’ physical toughness.
“When you look at the North Korean teams, the thing that impresses you the most is (that they are) very, very aggressive and very, very hard-working,” Constantine, now manager of the Rwanda men’s national team, told CNN.
“In some cases, which I thought was a bit extreme, they would have somebody piggyback – run from the goal line to the 18-yard line with this person on their back, drop her, and then sprint to the other box. It was insane.”
The North Korean players’ physical aptitude was clear, but coaches were aware of their technical and tactical shortcomings.
Elite academy instructors began translating the latest sports science data and techniques, analysing world-class matches from overseas to improve their players, according to North Korean media .
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“Technically they are very good, so they can overpower the majority of the teams in those age groups through pure physicality, technical ability and speed,” said Colin Bell, a former South Korean women’s national team manager with experience facing North Korean teams.
Having studied their U20s team at the recent Asian Cup, he explained that the North Koreans were extremely disciplined and mastered playing in “simple” sequences.
“It’s not rocket science, but it’s very well executed, and their football IQ is very high for those age groups,” Bell said.
“I watched every player run. They all run with the same style. Honestly. It’s drill, drill, drill from a very early age, and you just cannot compete with them at youth level.”
Rielly Chesna, a defender with Ho Chi Minh City Women’s FC, which lost to Naegohyang in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, also remarked on the team’s smooth choreography.
“You could tell they know exactly where they’re supposed to go, and they just flowed. Their passing on the ground and movement was perfect. It was definitely hard to track them,” the American told CNN.
The players have even more of an edge mentally, according to Bell.
“You can just see that it’s not a normal game for them. There’s a certain amount of desperation in the way they play. They have to be successful, and you can sense it,” he said.
“Obviously, the way the country is probably governed, it leads to that. Everybody knows that there’ll be certain parts that are doing okay, but a large part of the society in North Korea is very poor. So, sport is a really big option for these young girls to help their families for the future. That’s how they play. You cannot simulate the desperation.”
Long-time FIFA trainer Kwok Ka-ming, who educated coaches in North Korea four times between 2013 and 2019, added: “At youth level in Europe the countries are not so concentrated on the results, but developing players. In Asia, they need to get results to be told they are good.”
“If you’re a champion, Kim Jong Un will meet you at the airport,” said the Hong Konger. “This is critical.”
Attentions will soon turn to next year’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil, the senior team’s return to the global stage after years in the sporting wilderness.
After winning the Women’s Asian Cup three times during the early 2000s, things started to unravel at the 2011 World Cup, where five players failed doping tests, which they blamed on traditional Chinese medicine that used deer musk glands, to treat the effects of being struck by lightning. They were fined and banned from participating in the following World Cup and qualifiers , halting any progress.
Then the team, for unknown reasons, withdrew from the East Asian championship in 2019 , and missed the 2023 World Cup, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.
But they reemerged early this year with a new head coach and nearly half the squad replaced with fresh faces, to secure its spot at the global showpiece.
They performed strongly at this year’s Women’s Asian Cup but lost a tight quarter-final to hosts Australia, whose coach Joe Montemurro even acknowledged that the North Koreans were “the best team in the tournament. They play great football.”
As North Korea continues to pad its senior team with proven youth team graduates, its prospects in women’s soccer appear bright, said Gina Bagnulo, a freelance journalist covering Asian football.
“People who were standout performers in their squad, or at least start to make their debut with the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, a lot of them were just fresh out of the underage system, so we’re seeing that transpire,” Bagnulo said, noting Kim Kyong Yong as a player to watch.
With young up-and-comers likely to be included in the roster for the upcoming World Cup, the question is: can the seniors reproduce their juniors’ success against the world’s best? There’s still much to prove.
“Youth football has been a big advantage so it will be very interesting to see how they fare next year,” Bell said. “Are they able at some stage to dominate senior national football? I’m not sure if they can.”
Bagnulo noted that the competition will be fierce.
“We’re talking about the likes of, you know, Brazil, who are hosting, the USA, even… But I do think that they’ll probably win a few matches at least, even if it’s just in the group stage.”
