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Kim Kyong-il

North Korean footballer

Fame51.5
Momentum17.6
Footballers rank#95
Wikipedia385

Born 1988 · age 38

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Wikipedia
21 languages
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Age
38
Born 1988

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

A North Korean footballer whose name appears in the records of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa — the tournament where his national team arrived with just one player from a European club, making them an outlier in a competition newly defined by continental reach.

Biography

About

Kim Kyong-il was part of North Korea's 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, held from 11 June to 11 July in South Africa. The tournament required each nation to submit a preliminary list of 30 players by 11 May, then trim to a final roster by 1 June. His team stood alone: North Korea was the only squad with just a single player from a European club, Hong Yong-jo, in a World Cup where every participating nation for the first time had at least one Europe-based name. The contrast was stark — Nigeria fielded no domestic players, England fielded none from abroad — but North Korea's near-total…

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