The most successful club in North Korea, 4.25 got its name to celebrate April 25, the day country’s first leader Kim Il Sung founded the Army. All the players in the 4.25 squad are designated as the Army officers and the team captain Rim Chol-Min is a major in rank, the post hold by only two players in the touring squad.
Rim is however not among the four North Korean national team players in the 4.25 squad that is currently in Dhaka to play the first leg of the AFC Cup Inter-Zone Semifinals against six-time Bangladesh Premier League champions Abahani Limited at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Wednesday.
The North Korean champions enjoyed their first training session in Dhaka Sunday morning for around one and half hour at the Abahani field with the players wearing red jerseys and the coaching staffs led by head coach O Yun Son wearing all black. None talked to the media but the team’s representative Jing Myong was there to provide some notes.
The football structure of North Korea does not follow the traditional format. The domestic games are a series of six tournaments held every two months in a year but the national players do not participate in those meets. The teams are then ranked according to their performance over six tournaments. Top 13 clubs take part in the DPR Korea Football League where 4.25 are highest 18-time champions.
The Korean giants had a different idea about the weather condition in Bangladesh than what they found after arriving in the capital Saturday. It was sunny weather but the temperature was not too hot during the training session as Jing said, “The weather is better than we expected. It’s usually raining in July and August in Korea but there has been no rain so far this year,” said the Korean.
There are eight national players in the 4.25 out of which four were left back at home with the national training camp ahead of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers starting next month. The rest four are – forwards Kim Yu-song, An Il-bom, midfielder Yon Il-gwang and defender Ansong Il. Team manager Kim Jong Man was a national player in the 1980s.
Kim has been in tremendous form in the previous three editions of the AFC Cup netting a total 21 goals. He scored a total six goals in six matches in the group stages this season. The striker however suffered a “slight ankle injury” during a friendly against a Mongolian club and may not feature in the full game in the first leg of the Inter-Zone semifinal.
Unlike what is the first time for Abahani, 4.25 have been competing in the AFC Cup Inter-Zone semifinals for the third time in a row. They lost to Indian outfits Bengaluru FC in the same stage two years ago after which only three changes was made to the current squad. The team got better by the time and reached the final last year after beating a Singaporean club 11-1 on aggregate in the last-four.
This season, the team looked more solid in defence as they conceded only two goals in their six group matches scored a total 17 goals. They didn’t concede a single goal in their three home matches and aiming to win the AFC Cup title for the first time from East Asia.
