Excluding Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, Lee Kang-in, Cho Kyu-sung, Yang Min-hyuk, and Lee Myung-jae... Hong Myung-bo Team 'World Cup Final Mock Test' revealed 27 people. [the scene of Cheonan]

*This content was translated by AI.

Coach Hong Myung-bo has confirmed the de facto final test list for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North Korea and the U.S. As it is the last real test ahead of the World Cup finals, the 26 warriors convened this time are likely to be the main body of the final World Cup entry.

On the afternoon of the 16th, the Korea Football Association released the list of national teams to play in the away warm-up match (Côte d'Ivoire, Austria) in March on its official channel.

Today, head coach Hong Myung-bo will personally attend a press conference to announce the list at 2 p.m. at Cheonan Korea Football Park in Chungcheongnam-do.

Captain Son Heung-min (Los Angeles FC) and striker Oh Hyun-kyu (Besiktashi), who has recently been active on the Turkiye stage, were included in the striker list. The existing main players, Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), were also listed without incident.

Key midfielder Hwang In-beom was also included in the call-up list. Hwang In-beom was replaced by a foot injury in the 44th minute of the first half of the 27th round home game between Excelsior and Eredivisie in the Netherlands in the 2025-2026 season at Stadion Feyenoord in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Yang Hyun-joon (Celtic FC), a side resource who has recently been active in his team Celtic, will wear the A national team uniform for the first time in about nine months since June last year. Hong Hyun-seok (KAAHent) took the opportunity to play an A match for the first time in about a year and five months after the third qualifying round of the FIFA North-China World Cup in October 2024.

Yang Min-hyuk (Coventry City) and Lee Myung-jae (Daejeon Hana Citizen) were excluded from the convocation.

The national team will face the Ivory Coast at Milton Keynes, England, at 11 p.m. on the 28th (Korea Standard Time), and then move to Vienna, Austria, at 3:45 a.m. on the 1st of next month to face Austria in turn.

The weight of this list announcement is different. Considering Hong Myung-bo Team's official schedule so far, the two consecutive games are very likely to be the last warm-up match before the final entry is confirmed in May. Considering the flow of the national team moving directly to Mexico, the site of the showdown after the announcement of the final list, the final outline of the World Cup envisioned by head coach Hong Myung-bo was revealed through the list.

Compared to past cases, the importance of this March list is clear. During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, coach Shin Tae-yong announced a preliminary list of 28 players in mid-May after the warm-up match in March and selected the final 23 players after a domestic warm-up match. Coach Paulo Bento is also a domestic player during the 2022 Qatar World Cup

FW: Son Heung-min (Los Angeles FC), Oh Hyun-kyu (Besiktashi), Cho Kyu-sung (Mit Willan)

MF: Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Yang Hyun-joon (Celtic), Baek Seung-ho (Birmingham City), Park Jin-seop (Joji FC), Hwang In-beom (Feyenoord), Hong Hyun-suk (KAAhent), Kim Jin-kyu (Jeonbuk Hyundai), Kwon Hyuk-kyu (Carlsruhe), Bae Jun-ho (Stock City), Um Ji-sung (Swansea City), Lee Jae-sung (Mainz), Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

DF: Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), Cho Yoo-min (Sharjah FC), Kim Tae-hyun (Kashima Antlers), Lee Tae-seok (Austriabin), Seol Young-woo (Trvenazvezda), Jens Kastrov (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Kim Joo-sung (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Lee Han-beom (Mit Willan), Kim Moon-hwan (Daejeon Hana Citizen)

GK: Kim Seung-gyu (FC Tokyo), Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan HD), Song Bum-keun (Jeonbuk)

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*This content was translated by AI.