# R League

The R League (Korean: R리그), also known as the Korean Professional Football Reserve League, is the league for reserve teams of professional football clubs in South Korea.

## History

The Korean Reserve League was started in 1990 with reserve teams of five K League clubs.
It was not held for nine years after the inaugural season, but was relaunched in a new format in 2000. The participating teams were split into two or three group leagues, and the highest ranking teams of each league qualified for playoffs to determine the overall champions. It was renamed "R League" in 2009. The Korea Police FC participated in the R League until 2012, although it was not a reserve team of a K League club.
The R League was abolished in 2013 following the foundation of the K League 2, which needed participating players, but was restarted in 2016. It was once again ceased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the Korea Football Association (KFA) allowed reserve teams to join the football league pyramid through the semi-professional K3 League and K4 League. Plans to resume the R League were scrapped due to a lack of participating teams as a number of teams elected to participate in the K4 League instead.

## Champions
### Champions by season
#### Reserve League (1990)

| Edition | Season | Single league |
| 1 | 1990 | POSCO Atoms |

#### Reserve League (2000–2005)

| Edition | Season | Championship | Central League | Southern League |
| 2 | 2000 | Anyang LG Cheetahs | Anyang LG Cheetahs | Jeonnam Dragons |
| 3 | 2001 | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Pohang Steelers |
| 4 | 2002 | Anyang LG Cheetahs | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Gwangju Sangmu Bulsajo |
| 5 | 2003 | Not held | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Jeonnam Dragons |
| 6 | 2004 | FC Seoul | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Pohang Steelers |
| 7 | 2005 | Bucheon SK | FC Seoul | Jeonnam Dragons |

#### Reserve League (2006–2008)

| Edition | Season | Championship | Group A | Group B | Group C |
| 8 | 2006 | Incheon United | FC Seoul | Incheon United | Jeonnam Dragons |
| 9 | 2007 | Pohang Steelers | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Jeju United | Pohang Steelers |
| 10 | 2008 | Incheon United | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Gyeongnam FC | Not held |

#### R League (2009)

| Edition | Season | Championship | Group A | Group B | Group C |
| 11 | 2009 | Incheon United | Incheon United | Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | Pohang Steelers |

#### R League (2010–present)

| Edition | Season | Single league | Group A | Group B |
| 12 | 2010 | Not held | FC Seoul | Pohang Steelers |
| 13 | 2011 | Not held | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Sangju Sangmu Phoenix |
| 14 | 2012 | Not held | Korean Police | Busan IPark |
| 15 | 2016 | Not held | FC Seoul | Daegu FC |
| 16 | 2017 | Ulsan Hyundai | Not held | Not held |
| 17 | 2018 | Not held | FC Seoul | Daejeon Citizen |
| 18 | 2019 | Not held | FC Seoul | Pohang Steelers |
| 19 | 2022 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |

### Performance by club

K League's principle of official statistics is that final club succeeds to predecessor club's history & records.
| Club | Group | National titles | Group titles | Total |
| FC Seoul | A | 3 (2000, 2002, 2004) | 7 (2000, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2016, 2018, 2019) | 10 |
| Incheon United | A | 3 (2006, 2008, 2009) | 2 (2006, 2009) | 5 |
| Pohang Steelers | B | 2 (1990, 2007) | 6 (2001, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2019) | 8 |
| Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | A | 1 (2001) | 7 (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011) | 8 |
| Jeju United | B | 1 (2005) | 1 (2007) | 2 |
| Ulsan Hyundai | B | 1 (2017) | — | 1 |
| Jeonnam Dragons | B | — | 4 (2000, 2003, 2005, 2006) | 4 |
| Sangju Sangmu Phoenix | B | — | 2 (2002, 2011) | 2 |
| Gyeongnam FC | B | — | 1 (2008) | 1 |
| Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | B | — | 1 (2009) | 1 |
| Korean Police | A | — | 1 (2012) | 1 |
| Busan IPark | B | — | 1 (2012) | 1 |
| Daegu FC | B | — | 1 (2016) | 1 |
| Daejeon Citizen | B | — | 1 (2018) | 1 |

## Awards
### Most Valuable Player

| Season | Player | Club |
| 1990 | Choi Moon-sik | POSCO Atoms |
| 2000 | Kim Woo-jae | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma |
| 2001 | Back Young-chul | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma |
| 2002 | Park Dong-suk | Anyang LG Cheetahs |
| 2003 | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 2004 | Han Dong-won | FC Seoul |
| 2005 | Yoo Hyun-goo | Bucheon SK |
| 2006 | Lee Keun-ho | Incheon United |
| 2007 | Lee Won-jae | Pohang Steelers |
| 2008 | Kang Su-il | Incheon United |
| 2009 | Kim Sun-woo | Incheon United |

### Top goalscorer

| Season | Player | Club | Goals | Apps | Ratio |
| 1990 | Kim Dong-hae | Lucky-Goldstar Hwangso | 7 | ? | ? |
| 2000 | Wang Jung-hyun | Anyang LG Cheetahs | 8 | 8 | 1.00 |
| 2001 | Hwang In-soo | Suwon Samsung Bluewings | 10 | 13 | 0.77 |
| 2002 | Lee Sun-woo | Suwon Samsung Bluewings | 7 | 13 | 0.54 |
| 2003 | Back Young-chul | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 8 | 13 | 0.62 |
| 2004 | Bu Young-tae | Busan IPark | 8 | 8 | 1.00 |
| 2005 | Han Dong-won | FC Seoul | 10 | 20 | 0.50 |
| 2006 | Song Keun-soo | Gwangju Sangmu | 11 | 16 | 0.69 |
| 2007 | Yoon Jun-soo | Jeonnam Dragons | 8 | 16 | 0.50 |
| 2008 | Yoo Chang-hyun | Pohang Steelers | 13 | 23 | 0.57 |
| 2009 | Song Je-heon | Daegu FC | 8 | 13 | 0.62 |
| 2010 | Eraldo Anício Gomes | Jeju United | 7 | 4 | 1.75 |
| 2011 | Jung Sung-min | Gangwon FC | 10 | 17 | 0.59 |
| 2012 | Kim Young-hoo | Korean Police | 11 | 14 | 0.79 |
| 2016 | Han Hong-gyu | Ansan Mugunghwa | 9 | 10 | 0.9 |
| 2017 | Kim Hee-won | Seoul E-Land | 11 | 16 | 0.69 |
| 2018 | Kwon Ki-pyo | Pohang Steelers | 14 | 19 | 0.74 |
| 2019 | Jeon Hyeon-chul | Daegu FC | 13 | 11 | 1.18 |

### Top assist provider

| Season | Player | Club | Assists | Apps | Ratio |
| 1990 | Ahn Ki-chul | Daewoo Royals | ? | ? | ? |
| 2000 | Shin Jong-hyok | Pohang Steelers | 6 | 12 | 0.50 |
| 2001 | Lee Jung-woon | Pohang Steelers | 5 | 13 | 0.38 |
| 2002 | Kim Woo-jae | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 6 | 18 | 0.33 |
| 2003 | Park Won-jae | Pohang Steelers | 4 | 13 | 0.31 |
| 2004 | Jang Dong-hyun | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 5 | 17 | 0.29 |
| 2005 | Yu Hyun-goo | Jeju United | 8 | 21 | 0.38 |
| 2006 | Lee Keun-ho | Incheon United | 7 | 20 | 0.35 |
| 2007 | Hwang Jin-sung | Pohang Steelers | 5 | 5 | 1.00 |
| 2008 | Lee Tae-young | Pohang Steelers | 7 | 21 | 0.33 |
| 2009 | Choi Sung-hyun | Suwon Samsung Bluewings | 5 | 7 | 0.71 |
| 2010 | Kim Eun-hu | Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | 6 | 10 | 0.60 |
| 2011 | Sin Jin-ho | Pohang Steelers | 7 | 17 | 0.41 |
| 2012 | Choi Jin-soo | Ulsan Hyundai | 5 | 10 | 0.50 |
| 2016 | Kim Dae-won | Daegu FC | 5 | 13 | 0.38 |
| 2017 | Kim Soo-beom | Jeju United | 5 | 9 | 0.56 |
| 2018 | Song Min-kyu | Pohang Steelers | 8 | 18 | 0.44 |
| 2019 | Park Tae-jun | Seongnam FC | 7 | 8 | 0.88 |