South Korea’s loss is Japan’s gain in the battle for Premier League relevance in Asia

South Korea as a footballing nation has not had the best of the year 2026 so far. A highly-rated squad with a lot of expectations flew to the World Cup with the hope of making a deep run in the competition only to crash, bang, and wallop in spectacular fashion as they were eliminated from the group stages.

If that is not all, the football association is under investigation by the Korean police for allegations pertaining to bribery and misappropriation of funds, and worst of all, the 2026/27 Premier League season would be the first season that will start without any sort of Korean representation in the league since 2005.

It is a sad fall from grace for the land of the morning calm, who for the longest time were the belle of the ball for Asian football. Ever since Park Ji-Sung joined in 2005 till Heung-min Son took the mantle from him in 2015. But apart from these two legends of Korean football, there are other Korean stars who have built themselves a reputation of being cult figures in the clubs they played. 

The likes of Ki Sung-yeung, Lee Chung-yong, and Lee Young-pyo have all figured for considerable games in the Premiership and have seen reasonable success as well. And as always there have been players who could not buy a good performance even if their lives depended on it, the relationship between the Premier League and South Korea has always been a good one.

However, ever since Son departed to the States, there just hasn’t been enough Korean flavour in the league, and the ones who were there either do not have the pull like Park or Son, nor have the skill and the quality to make it to the first-teams of the clubs they play for. 

Hwang Hee-Chan was the only one left, but even he went to the Championship after Wolves suffered relegation last season. And while there are three Korean players who play for Premier League clubs, it looks to be a matter of time that Yang Min-hyeok (Spurs), Kim Ji-soo (Brentford), and Park Seung-soo (Newcastle) will either be loaned or shipped out.

However, as is always the case in the football world, one’s loss is another’s gain. And just like that, South Korea’s downfall in the PL is in line with the rapid rise of Japan and its increasing representation in the league. 

This is a stark change in the mindset of the Japanese players, who earlier had a tendency to always move to Germany to ply their trade. But seeing the success of the players and the steady increase in the number of players, that mindset has begun to change.

Last season, Kaoru Mitoma, arguably Japan’s best player in the Premier League, was hugely successful with Brighton. Daichi Kamada won the Conference League with Crystal Palace, Ao Tanaka was hugely influential in steering Leeds United to safety, while Wataru Endo is christened as a Liverpool cult hero with his exploits for the Merseyside club.

Even more players are expected to join the fold now. Takehiro Tomiyasu, formerly of Arsenal, will be joining Kamada in Palace. Hull City have gone ahead to sign Hidemasa Morita, while Daizen Maeda holds the distinction of being Ipswich Town’s first-ever Japanese player following his move from Celtic.

Japan’s recent rise has also been a blueprint to a lot of other Asian nations, including South Korea, with Park mentioning about taking a leaf out of their Japanese counterparts’ playbook to start bridging the gap between them.

A metric that explains the gulf is also the contrasting levels of interest in the fans towards the league. While Japan has a fan base of dedicated Premier League watchers, the same cannot be said of the South Korean diaspora, who watch the league only because of the affinity towards the players, with interest in the league just a passing thought. 

In this battle for Premier League relevance in the far east, South Korea’s loss is Japan’s gain, and it looks to be that way for a good while to come.