[Official] The list of Ivory Coast's "Korean warm-up Korea" was announced, and half of them were "European big leaguers."

*This content was translated by AI.

Hong Myung-bo Team's first warm-up match in March in preparation for the 2026 FIFA 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup, Ivory Coast's squad, has been announced. About half are made up of players from European big leagues such as the English Premier League (EPL) and the French League 1.

The Ivory Coast Football Association announced on the 19th (Korea Standard Time) the list of Ivory Coast's national soccer teams to play against South Korea and Scotland in the A-match warm-up match in March. The match between Korea and Ivory Coast will be held at 11 p.m. on the 28th in London, England.

Manager Emers Pae (Côte d'Ivoire) convened Manchester United striker Ahmad Diallo, three EPL players including Evan Gesang (Crystal Palace) and Ibrahim Sangare (Nottingham Forest), Gela Due, Marshall Godot (Strasbourg), Simon Addinga (Monaco) and Clement Akpa (Oxer).

Evan Ndica (AS Roma), Odilon Cossunu (Atalanta), Bazumana Toure (Hopenheim), Jan Diomande (Leifchi) and Yelier Wahi (Frankfurt) are also on the Ivory Coast national team list. Also included were Frank Kesier (Al-Ahli), who played for AC Milan and Barcelona, and Jean-Micael Seri (Maribor), who played in 64 A matches. Of the 25 players, all of them play in Europe except Kesier, who plays in the Saudi Arabian League.

Ivory Coast is ranked 37th in the FIFA rankings, 15 places lower than Korea (22nd). In this 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup, they were in Group E along with Germany, Curaçao and Ecuador. South Korea has the upper hand in the previous record with one win out of one match. In March 2010, a warm-up match was also held in London, England, where Korea won 2-0 with consecutive goals from Lee Dong-guk and Kwak Tae-hwi.

From Hong Myung-bo Team's point of view, the match against Ivory Coast has the meaning of a hypothetical match against South Africa that belongs to the same group as the World Cup. After the match against Ivory Coast, South Korea will play its second warm-up match in March against Austria (24th in FIFA rankings) in Vienna, Austria at 3:45 a.m. on the 1st of next month.

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*This content was translated by AI.