Ri Kwang-chon (; born 4 September 1985) is a North Korean 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 ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Club career

From 2005 to 2011, Ri played for

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 ...

and helped them win the league three times in 2002, 2010 and 2011. In 2012, he had a chance to join Chinese side Tianjin Teda but had problems obtaining a work permit and eventually joined

Muangthong United Muangthong United Football Club () is a Thai professional football club based in Muang Thong Thani, Pak Kret district, Nonthaburi province. The club plays in the Thai League 1, the top-flight football league of Thailand. Muangthong United has pa ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. After his release from Muangthong, Ri returned to April 25 in 2014, but came back to Thailand a year later to join Pattaya United, retiring that same year. As with many other North Korean footballers, his whereabouts are unknown after his retirement.

International career

Ri played for the North Korean national team between 2001 and 2012. He represented the country at the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

and the

2011 AFC Asian Cup The 2011 AFC Asian Cup was the 15th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011. It was the secon ...

Honours

Club

April 25 *

DPR Korea League The DPR Korea Football League (Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국 축구 리그) is North Korea's association football league. It has a first division DPR Korea Premier Football League, a second division DPR Korea Football League 2, ...

: 2010, 2011 Muangthong United *

Thai Premier League The Thai League (, pronounced as ') or Thai League 1 (, pronounced as '), often referred to as T1, is the highest level of the Thai football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Thai L ...

: 2012

International

AFC Challenge Cup The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that were categorised as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. It was created by former AFC president Mohammed ...

: 2010, 2012

References

* 1985 births Living people North Korean men's footballers North Korea men's international footballers April 25 Sports Club players 2010 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand 2011 AFC Asian Cup players Men's association football central defenders Footballers at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games footballers for North Korea North Korean expatriate sportspeople in Thailand {{NorthKorea-footy-bio-stub