Jong Il-gwan (; born 30 October 1992) is a North Korean professional

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 ...

who plays as a striker for DPR Korea Premier Football League club Ryomyong and the North Korea national team. He is the country's all-time top scorer.

Club career

On 24 November 2010, Jong was crowned AFC Youth Player of the Year. On 5 June 2012, numerous reports surfaced linking the player with a move to

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

with later reports strongly linking him with

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; ), often referred to in English as Partizan Belgrade, is a Serbian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Belgrade. It forms ...

and

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

. He was transferred to

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

club

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (). It is best known for its professional association football, football team, which plays in the Swiss Super League, Super League, the top tier of the ...

in July 2017, signing a two-year contract. On 1 August 2022, Jong won his club's first ever

Hwaebul Cup The Hwaebul Cup (홰불, ''Torch'') is an annual association football competition in men's Football in North Korea, domestic football in North Korea. It is organised by the DPR Korea Football Association, the governing body of football in North K ...

after scoring a 96th minute winner for Ryomyong against

April 25 Events Pre-1600 * 404 BC – Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion. * 775 – The Battle of Bagrevand puts an end to an Armenian rebellion against th ...

in a 2–1 win. On 19 March 2024, the Japanese newspaper ''

Choson Sinbo The , also known by the name of its English edition ''The People's Korea'', is a newspaper based in Japan, published in both Korean and Japanese. The name literally means 'Korea Newspaper'. It is published by the General Association of Korea ...

'' revealed that Jong signed for Choson University of Physical Education club. On 30 August 2024, a Championat Asia article revealed that Jong had returned to Ryomyong.

International career

Jong made his senior international debut for

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

on 26 March 2011 against

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

in a 2–0 defeat. Jong made his EAFF preliminaries debut in 2012 against

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

. He scored his first competition goal in a 5–0 win against

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in the second preliminary round. Jong scored a brace in 2014 against the same opposition for the second preliminary round, helping his side qualify for the final tournament. He scored another goal against Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong in 2016 for the 2017 edition's second preliminaries. On 16 December 2017, Jong scored a stunning free kick against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in a 1–1 draw. In the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

, Jong was named captain of the national team. Against

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, he was sent off towards the end of the match. On 21 November 2023, Jong scored his first international

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

in a 6–1 win at the

Thuwunna Stadium The Thuwunna Youth Training Center Stadium (), simply known as the Thuwunna Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Yangon, Myanmar. It is the venue of choice for most national and international Association football, football and track and ...

during the

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will decide the 45 teams that will join hosts Canada men's national soccer team, Canada, Mexico national football team, Mexico, and the United States men's national soccer team, United States at the 2026 FIFA ...

phase. On 6 June 2024, Jong scored a 90+2' stoppage time winner against

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. That goal helped North Korea stay in the running for the third round of qualifying.

Style of play

Jong is known for being a pacy and technical forward who can play on either flanks or up top. He has an expert first touch and vision and has an eye for exploiting spaces in between defenders. Jong is also a set piece specialist, scoring multiple free kicks in his international career.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list North Korean goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Jong goal.''

Honours

North Korea U20 *

AFC U-19 Championship The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams ...

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 ...

North Korea * Hero Intercontinental Cup:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Individual * 2010 AFC U-19 Championship Golden Ball *Hero Intercontinental Cup Best player:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jong, Il-gwan 1992 births Living people North Korean men's footballers North Korea men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Asian Young Footballer of the Year winners 2015 AFC Asian Cup players 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for North Korea Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Swiss Challenge League players FC Luzern players FC Wil players Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland North Korean expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland North Korean expatriate men's footballers North Korea men's under-20 international footballers