More often than the first opponent of Ukraine's U-20 team at the 2025 World Cup, only three teams among today’s participants have competed in this age category world championship. For South Korea, it is their 17th tournament, for Brazil — their 20th, and for Argentina and the USA — their 18th.

South Korea's team generally does not catch stars from the sky: seven times they stopped after the group stage, another four times — after the first knockout phase. However, in the last two cycles (2019 and 2023 World Cups), the Koreans performed very convincingly — finishing second and fourth respectively.

In 2019 in Poland, Asians reached the final of the U-20 World Cup for the first time in history and even scored an early goal, but they were stopped by Ukraine's team under Alexander Petrakov’s leadership, which secured a victory — 3:1.

In 2023, South Korea lost to Italy (1:2) in the semifinals, after which they even lost to Israel (1:3) in the match for third place. Nevertheless, Lee Sin Won, a Korean half-back, made it into the top three players of the tournament and received the "Bronze Ball."

South Korea's team qualified for the 2025 World Cup after successful performances at the U-20 Asian Cup. Successful — relatively speaking, as South Korea is a twelve-time continental championship winner — their last gold medal was in 2012. And on the last two Asian Cups, they were stopped in the semifinals. In February 2025, Saudi Arabia's team did it via penalty shootout.

Only two players in South Korea's squad represent non-local leagues — forwards Kim Tae Won (Portimonense from Portugal) and Kim Min Joon (Genk from Belgium).

At the same time, two wingers are missing — 19-year-old Han Min Ho (Plymouth Argyle in England), who has already debuted for the national team, and 18-year-old Yun Do Young (Excelsior Rotterdam in the Netherlands).