Spurs to play Team K League before meeting Bayern at Coupang Play Series

Tottenham will play Team K League on July 31 and Bayern on August 3.

Tottenham Hotspur will play a K League team before they play Bayern Munich this summer.

Tottenham Hotspur will play a medley squad composed of players from various K League clubs before meeting Bayern Munich in exhibition games at the 2024 Coupang Play Series in Seoul this summer, Coupang announced Wednesday in a press release.

Team K League, who beat Atletico Madrid 3-2 in a surprise upset at the Coupang Play Series last summer, will again be led by Ulsan HD manager Hong Myung-bo. Hong won the K League 1 title with Ulsan for the second straight year last fall.

The roster for this year’s K League squad has yet to be announced. For the previous two Coupang Play Series, the squad was a sort-of All-Star team of K League players, but made up of two players from each of the 12 K League players.

Ex-Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard now plays for the K League 1's FC Seoul and is theoretically eligible to play, although his unimpressive numbers so far this season suggest he might not make the cut.

During his stint in the Premier League, Lingard made 11 appearances against Spurs and had three shots on target, scoring once — for West Ham during his six-month loan, according to sports statistics aggregator Stat Muse. And he's yet to score for FC Seoul.

But he did make the poster.

Spurs will play the K League team on July 31 before they face Bayern on Aug. 3.

The exhibition games are set to carry multiple reunions.

Bayern striker and England captain Harry Kane will play against Spurs after spending a decade at Tottenham, and fans could witness several on-the-pitch struggles between Spurs forward Son Heung-min and Bayern defender Kim Min-jae.

“You know how passionate Korean football fans are, right?” Son said in a video that also featured Kane. “Everyone is waiting for us.”

Both matches will take place at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul with kickoff at 8 p.m.

Ticketing for the matches will open at 8 p.m. on June 28 on Coupang Play and is available exclusively to Coupang WOW members.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]