Cha Yun-hee (, ; born 26 February 1986) is a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and manager and coach who last played for Gyeongju KHNP in the

WK League The WK League (Hangul: WK리그) is a semi-professional women's football league, run by the Korea Football Association (KFA) and the Korea Women's Football Federation (KWFF), which represents the sport's highest level in South Korea. Icheon D ...

Early life

Born into a farming family in

Haenam County Haenam (''Haenam-gun'') is a county in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. The capital of Haenam-gun is Haenam-eup (Haenam town). The economy of the county is based mainly on agriculture, with rice and radish being the two most common crops. Hist ...

, as a child Cha was a talented

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete, but she was forced to take a break from the sport as a middle school student due to injury. However, a coach noticed her potential when she took part in a friendly football match, and she started playing football seriously while attending Gwangyang Girls' High School.

Club career

In April 2009, she was loaned to

SC 07 Bad Neuenahr SC 07 Bad Neuenahr was a German association football, football club from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate. The best-known section within the club was its women's football team, which was founded in 1969 and won the German Championship ...

for one year and two months, becoming the first female Korean footballer to play in Europe. She wanted to stay in Germany longer but her parent club Goyang Daekyo was struggling and recalled her to boost their performance. After Daekyo's disbandment in 2017, Cha was part of the first squad of Gyeongju KHNP WFC following its foundation. She retired from football at the end of the 2017 season.

International career

Cha first trained with the national team in 2003 and was said to be in consideration for South Korea's squad for the

2003 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial championship of women's association football, women's national soccer teams organized by FIFA. It was held in the United States from September ...

, despite only having played football for three years. She eventually made her debut for the team the following year. Cha was part of the South Korean team that won the

2005 EAFF Women's Football Championship The First EAFF Women's Football Championship was a football competition held from August 1 to August 6, 2005 in South Korea. South Korea won the first edition by beating its opponents to finish first, DPR Korea finished second. Matches and Res ...

Managerial career

After retiring as a player, Cha took a year away from football and trained as a barista, but returned to the sport as a youth coach after being encouraged by a friend. At first, she volunteered at a local youth futsal team in Icheon, before joining

Gangwon FC Gangwon FC () is a South Korean football club based in Gangwon Province. They joined the K League as its 15th club for the 2009 season. The club is sponsored by High1 Resort. History Gangwon Province's governor Kim Jin-sun announced a sch ...

as manager of the youth academy and women's futsal team.

Honors

Club

;Icheon Daekyo *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

International

* EAFF Women's Football Championship:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

Bronze medal:

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Individual

MVP:

References

External links

SC 07 Bad Neuenahr Official website profile

National Team Player Record
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cha, Yun-hee 1986 births Living people South Korean women's footballers South Korea women's international footballers SC 07 Bad Neuenahr players Frauen-Bundesliga players WK League players Expatriate women's footballers in Germany South Korean expatriate sportspeople in Germany Footballers at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Women's association football forwards South Korea women's under-20 international footballers South Korean expatriate women's footballers 21st-century South Korean sportswomen Asian Games bronze medalists in football