South Korea's national football team will receive 80 million won per player in bonuses despite a disappointing group-stage exit at the 2026 World Cup in North and Central America.
The South Korean team, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, finished third in Group A with one win and two losses (three points, goal difference of -1).
The team came from behind to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in its opening match, but lost 0-1 to host nation Mexico. In its final match against South Africa, a decisive game for advancing to the round of 32, the team fell 0-1, confirming its elimination.
South Korea was not included among the eight wild-card spots awarded to the best-performing third-place teams, finishing the tournament ranked 34th overall.
Regardless of the result, however, the squad will be paid bonuses set by the Korea Football Association.
Under the association's bonus criteria, all 26 players on the final roster receive a base allowance of 50 million won. With an added 30 million won group-stage win allowance, each player's total payout comes to 80 million won.
The team secured the win allowance with its victory over the Czech Republic, but failed to earn the draw allowance of 10 million won per match, as it recorded no draws.
In addition, because the team did not advance past the group stage, all performance-based additional bonuses were excluded.
The football association had set criteria to pay an additional bonus of 100 million won per player for reaching the round of 32, 200 million won for the round of 16, and 300 million won for the quarterfinals. However, with the group-stage exit, those bonuses were excluded from payment.
A special bonus separately promised by Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu will also not be paid. Chung had said he would provide 1 billion won if the team reached the round of 32, 2 billion won for the round of 16, and 3 billion won for the quarterfinals, in the nature of a donation, but the group-stage exit meant this too failed to meet the conditions for payment.
As a result, the 26 national team players, including Son Heung-min (LAFC), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), will all receive an equal 80 million won each, regardless of playing time or whether they appeared in matches. The total bonus pool for the entire squad amounts to 2.08 billion won.
Meanwhile, at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, when South Korea reached the round of 16 for only the second time in an overseas World Cup, players under coach Paulo Bento received bonuses of up to 340 million won each.
