Pak Kwang-Ryong (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 박광룡; born 27 September 1992) is a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

n professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a striker.

Club career

Born in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

, Pak originally played for Kigwanch'a SC of Sinŭiju before joining

FC Wil 1900 FC Wil (''Fussball Club Wil 1900'') is a football club based in Wil, Switzerland. They play in the ''Sportpark Bergholz'', which has a total capacity of 6,048. The club has consistently played in the Swiss second tier since regaining promotion in ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. However, Pak did not make any league appearances for them, because the club's quota of foreigner players had already been exhausted. On 27 June 2011 it was announced that

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

had signed Pak a five-year deal with them. He joined Basel's first team during their 2011–12 season under head coach

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, currently works as manager of Riga FC. Career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to SG Wattenscheid 09, where he hel ...

. In his very first test game against a district selection team from

Miesbach Miesbach () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and is the capital of the Miesbach district. The district is at an altitude of 697 metres above sea level. It covers an area of approximately 863.50 km² of alpine headlands and in 2017 had a popul ...

, Pak scored four goals after coming on as a substitute at half time. To the beginning of their 2011–12 season season Pak was member of the Basel team that won the 2011 Uhrencup, beating both

Hertha Berlin Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend (Berlin), Westend of the ...

3–0 and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

2–1 (here Pak scored the first goal of the match) to lead the table on goal difference above Young Boys. After playing in seven test games Pak played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away game in the

Stadion Wankdorf The Wankdorf Stadium (; between 2005 and 2020 known as Stade de Suisse) is a football stadium in Bern, Switzerland. The second largest all-seater football stadium in Switzerland, it currently serves as the home ground of the Swiss football team ...

on 16 July 2011 as Basel play a 1–1 draw with

BSC Young Boys BSC Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation ) are a Swiss sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 15 Swiss league championships and six Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football clubs internationally, reac ...

. Because he was born in 1992 he was eligible to play for the newly formed Basel Under-19 team in the 2011–12 NextGen series. He scored his first goal for them during the team's first game against

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

on 17 August 2011. On 14 September 2011 Pak became the first

n to play in the

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa Lea ...

campaign, coming on the field in the 92nd minute. On his 19th birthday, 27 September 2011, Pak came on as a substitute in the 81st minute of FC Basel's 3–3 away draw against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

in another UEFA Champions League match. Pak scored his first competition goal for the team in an away game in the

2011–12 Swiss Cup The 2011–12 Swiss Cup was the 87th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. It began on 16 September 2011 with the first games of Round 1 and ended on 16 May 2012 with the Final in the Stade de Suisse in Berne. The winners of ...

on 17 September 2011. In fact he netted the first two goals as Basel won 4–0 against amateur club FC Eschenbach. At the end of the 2011–12 season he won the

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

with his new club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Championship title with 20 points advantage. The team won the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, winning the final 4–2 in a penalty shootout against

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

. Pak could not gain a place in the first team during the 2012–13 season but played regularly in their U-21 side, scoring six goals in twelve appearances, during the first half of the season. On 11 January 2013, Basel announced that some of their youngsters would be loaned out to lower league clubs and Pak signed a deal with

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , , Ticinese ; french: Bellinzone ; german: Bellenz ; rm, Blizuna )is a municipality, a historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebell ...

, so that he could gain playing experience in the Challenge League. On 20 June 2013, Basel announced that they would loan Pak to the Liechtensteiner club

Vaduz Vaduz ( or , High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' Hrsg. ...

in the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while the ...

, again so that he could gain more playing experience. However, following the transfer of

Raúl Bobadilla Raúl Marcelo Bobadilla (born 18 June 1987) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Turkish club Bandırmaspor. Born in Argentina, he plays for the Paraguay national team. Career Early career Bobadilla originally started out at ...

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

, in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, and the injury to

Marco Streller Marco Streller (born 18 June 1981) is a Swiss former footballer who played as a striker and is best known for his years with FC Basel and the Switzerland national team. He was the sporting director of FC Basel from June 2017 until June 2019. Sin ...

, Basel decided to recall the striker to their squad. Pak played just one more game for Basel before he was again loaned to Vaduz from January 2014 until the end of the season. Playing in all 18 games, he scored 9 goals and Vaduz finished the 2013–14 Swiss Challenge League season as winners and were promoted. Pak's loan was renewed for the following Swiss Super League season. In February 2014, he was named North Korea's Male Footballer of the Year for 2013. At the end of the 2014–15 season, Basel did not renew Pak's contract. During his time with Basel's first team, Pak played a total of 42 games for Basel scoring a total of 10 goals. 14 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

, three in the

, four in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 21 were friendly games. He scored one goal in the domestic league, two in the cup and the other seven were scored during the test games. On 1 July 2015, he joined

Biel-Bienne , french: Biennois(e) , neighboring_municipalities= Brügg, Ipsach, Leubringen/Magglingen (''Evilard/Macolin''), Nidau, Orpund, Orvin, Pieterlen, Port, Safnern, Tüscherz-Alfermée, Vauffelin , twintowns = Iserlohn (Germany) B ...

as a free agent. On 4 January 2016, Biel-Bienne annulled their contract with Pak who then signed with

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list North Korea's goal tally first.''

Honours

North Korea *

AFC Challenge Cup The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that was categorized as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. "Vision Asia", created by former AFC president, ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

Basel *

: 2011–12 *

: 2011–12 Vaduz * Liechtenstein Cup: 2013–14 *

winner: 2013–14

References

External links

*
Pak Kwang-ryong
profile on the Swiss Football League homepage * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pak, Kwang-ryong 1992 births Living people Wolmido Sports Club players FC Basel players AC Bellinzona players FC Vaduz players FC Biel-Bienne players FC Lausanne-Sport players SKN St. Pölten players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players North Korean expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Liechtenstein North Korean expatriate sportspeople in Liechtenstein North Korean expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Austria North Korean footballers North Korea men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 2010 Asian Games Footballers at the 2014 Asian Games 2015 AFC Asian Cup players 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Sportspeople from Pyongyang Asian Games silver medalists for North Korea Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games North Korean expatriate sportspeople in Austria