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KEB Hana Bank
K League Challenge
Season	2017
Champions	Gyeongnam FC ; (1st title)
Promoted	Gyeongnam FC
Matches played	180
Goals scored	454 (2.52 per match)
Best Player	Marcão
Top goalscorer	Marcão ; (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Bucheon 6–2 Anyang ; (19 June 2017)
Biggest away win	Daejeon 1–4 Seongnam ; (27 August 2017) ; Anyang 1–4 Gyeongnam ; (2 September 2017)
Highest scoring	Bucheon 6–2 Anyang ; (19 June 2017)
Highest attendance	10,683 ; Anyang 1–4 Gyeongnam ; (2 September 2017)
Average attendance	2,324
	← 2016 2018 →

The 2017 K League Challenge was the fifth season of the K League 2, the second-highest division in the South Korean football league system. Champions and winners of the promotion playoffs could be promoted to the K League 1.

Teams

Team changes

Relegated from K League Classic

Promoted to K League Classic

Newly joined

Ansan Greeners

Withdrawn

Locations

Stadiums

Ansan Greeners	FC Anyang	Asan Mugunghwa	Bucheon FC 1995	Busan IPark
Ansan Wa~ Stadium	Anyang Stadium	Yi Sun-sin Stadium	Bucheon Stadium	Busan Gudeok Stadium
Capacity: 35,000	Capacity: 17,143	Capacity: 19,283	Capacity: 34,545	Capacity: 12,349

Daejeon Citizen	Gyeongnam FC	Seongnam FC	Seoul E-Land	Suwon FC
Daejeon World Cup Stadium	Changwon Football Center	Tancheon Stadium	Seoul Olympic Stadium	Suwon Sports Complex
Capacity: 40,535	Capacity: 15,500	Capacity: 16,146	Capacity: 69,950	Capacity: 11,808

Personnel and sponsoring

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Managers	Kit manufacturer	Main sponsor
Ansan Greeners	Lee Heung-sil	Kelme	Ansan Government
FC Anyang	Kim Jong-pil	Astore	Anyang Government
Asan Mugunghwa	Song Sun-ho	Puma	Asan Government
Bucheon FC 1995	Jeong Gab-seok	Astore	Bucheon Government
Busan IPark	Cho Jin-ho	Adidas	Hyundai Development Company
Daejeon Citizen	Lee Young-ik	Astore	Daejeon Government
Gyeongnam FC	Kim Jong-boo	Hummel	Gyeongnam Government
Seongnam FC	Park Kyung-hoon	Umbro	Seongnam Government
Seoul E-Land	Kim Byung-soo	New Balance	E-Land
Suwon FC	Cho Duck-je	Hummel	Suwon Government

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team could use four foreign players on the field each game.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player
Ansan Greeners	Luka Rotković	Raúl Tarragona		Bahodir Nasimov
FC Anyang	Jô	Lukian	Aubin Kouakou
Bucheon FC 1995	Nilson Júnior	Waguininho	Rodrigo Paraná	Bakhodir Pardayev
Busan IPark	Danny Morais	Rômulo	Léo Mineiro	Michihiro Yasuda
Daejeon Citizen	Bruno Cantanhede	Levan Shengelia	Cristian Dănălache
Gyeongnam FC	Alex Bruno	Marcão	Ivan Herceg
Seongnam FC	Dário Júnior	Marin Oršulić	Filip Hlohovský
Seoul E-Land	Wesley Alex	Daniel Lovinho	Tomoki Wada	Atsuki Wada
Suwon FC	Bruce Djite	Pedro Carmona	Vladan Adžić	Adrian Leijer

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Gyeongnam FC (C, P)	36	24	7	5	69	36	+33	79	Promotion to the K League 1
2	Busan IPark	36	19	11	6	52	30	+22	68	Qualification for the promotion playoffs semi-final
3	Asan Mugunghwa	36	15	9	12	44	37	+7	54	Qualification for the promotion playoffs first round
4	Seongnam FC	36	13	14	9	38	30	+8	53	Qualification for the promotion playoffs first round
5	Bucheon FC 1995	36	15	7	14	50	46	+4	52
6	Suwon FC	36	11	12	13	42	48	−6	45
7	FC Anyang	36	10	9	17	40	58	−18	39
8	Seoul E-Land	36	7	14	15	42	55	−13	35
9	Ansan Greeners	36	7	12	17	36	54	−18	33
10	Daejeon Citizen	36	6	11	19	41	60	−19	29

Source: K League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goals scored; 3) Goal difference; 4) Wins; 5) Head-to-head points.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Positions by matchday

Leaders
Qualification for the promotion playoffs

Round 1–18

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Team ╲ Round
Gyeongnam FC	4	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Busan IPark	4	1	2	4	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Asan Mugunghwa	9	4	4	2	4	5	4	3	4	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	4	3
Bucheon FC 1995	1	6	7	5	5	3	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	5	5	4	3	4
Seongnam FC	9	8	8	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	9	9	7	7	7	6	5	5
Suwon FC	1	2	1	3	3	4	5	5	3	5	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	6
FC Anyang	6	10	10	8	7	7	6	6	6	6	5	5	4	4	4	5	6	7
Ansan Greeners	1	5	5	6	6	6	7	7	7	8	7	7	8	9	9	8	8	8
Seoul E-Land	6	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	7	8	8	9	8	8	9	9	9
Daejeon Citizen	6	7	6	7	8	8	8	8	8	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10

Source: K League

Round 19–36

Team ╲ Round	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Team ╲ Round
Gyeongnam FC	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Busan IPark	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Asan Mugunghwa	3	4	4	5	5	3	3	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	3	3	3	3
Seongnam FC	6	6	6	4	4	5	4	5	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	4	4
Bucheon FC 1995	4	3	3	3	3	4	5	4	3	3	3	3	4	4	5	5	5	5
Suwon FC	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	7	7	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	6	6
FC Anyang	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	7	7
Seoul E-Land	9	9	9	9	10	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Ansan Greeners	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Daejeon Citizen	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10

Source: K League

Results

Matches 1–18

Home \ Away	ANS	ANY	ASM	BUC	BIP	DJC	GNM	SEN	SEL	SUW
Ansan Greeners	—	1–0	2–1	2–4	0–3	2–1	3–3	0–1	1–2	3–3
FC Anyang	2–1	—	0–2	3–1	0–1	3–2	1–2	2–0	2–0	1–2
Asan Mugunghwa	1–0	4–0	—	2–1	0–2	3–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0
Bucheon FC 1995	2–0	6–2	1–2	—	1–0	1–1	2–2	0–2	2–1	0–1
Busan IPark	3–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	—	2–1	1–1	1–2	3–0	2–2
Daejeon Citizen	1–2	0–2	1–1	0–1	2–3	—	0–2	1–1	2–1	4–3
Gyeongnam FC	3–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	—	1–1	3–0	2–0
Seongnam FC	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–2	0–1	1–0	1–2	—	0–2	0–1
Seoul E-Land	1–0	2–2	1–1	4–1	2–3	3–3	0–1	0–0	—	0–0
Suwon FC	0–4	3–3	0–2	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–1	0–1	2–2	—

Source: K League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 19–36

Home \ Away	ANS	ANY	ASM	BUC	BIP	DJC	GNM	SEN	SEL	SUW
Ansan Greeners	—	2–2	0–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–0
FC Anyang	2–0	—	1–3	1–3	1–2	0–0	1–4	1–3	2–0	0–0
Asan Mugunghwa	0–0	2–0	—	1–1	0–1	1–2	2–3	0–2	2–0	2–1
Bucheon FC 1995	1–1	0–0	3–0	—	0–2	1–0	2–4	3–2	1–0	0–1
Busan IPark	3–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	—	4–2	1–2	0–0	2–1	2–2
Daejeon Citizen	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	—	2–1	1–4	0–1	2–0
Gyeongnam FC	3–1	0–1	3–1	2–1	2–0	4–2	—	1–0	2–1	2–2
Seongnam FC	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–3	—	2–2	3–0
Seoul E-Land	3–3	2–3	3–2	2–2	2–2	0–0	1–0	1–1	—	0–0
Suwon FC	0–2	4–0	0–1	1–2	0–1	3–2	2–1	0–0	3–1	—

Source: K League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion playoffs

Bracket

First round			Semi-final			Final

			2	Busan IPark	3

			3	Asan Mugunghwa	0
3	Asan Mugunghwa	1

4	Seongnam FC	0
						Busan IPark	0	1	1 (4)

						Sangju Sangmu (p)	1	0	1 (5)

First round

15 November 2017

19:00 KST

Asan Mugunghwa	1–0	Seongnam FC
Jung Sung-min 65'	Report

Yi Sun-sin Stadium, Asan

Attendance: 3,840

Referee: Kim Jong-hyeok

Semi-final

18 November 2017

15:00 KST

Busan IPark	3–0	Asan Mugunghwa
Lee Jung-hyup 32' Lee Dong-jun 81', 90+4'	Report

Busan Gudeok Stadium, Busan

Attendance: 2,710

Referee: Kim Dong-jin

Final

The promotion-relegation playoffs were held between the winners of the 2017 K League Challenge playoffs and the 11th-placed club of the 2017 K League Classic. The winner on aggregate score after both matches earned entry into the 2018 K League 1.

22 November 2017

19:00 KST

Busan IPark	0–1	Sangju Sangmu
	Report	Yeo Reum 7'

Busan Gudeok Stadium, Busan

Attendance: 1,322

Referee: Lee Dong-jun

26 November 2017

15:00 KST

Sangju Sangmu	0–1 (a.e.t.)	Busan IPark
	Report	Rômulo 16' (pen.)
Penalties
Yeo Reum Sin Jin-ho Lim Chae-min Kim Ho-nam Joo Min-kyu	5–4	Rômulo Léo Mineiro Lee Dong-jun Ko Kyung-min Lim You-hwan

Sangju Civic Stadium, Sangju

Attendance: 2,714

Referee: Kim Seong-ho

1–1 on aggregate. Sangju Sangmu won 5–4 on penalties and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.

Player statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Marcão	Gyeongnam FC	22
2	Raúl Tarragona	Ansan Greeners	15
3	Waguininho	Bucheon FC 1995	12
4	Jung Won-jin	Gyeongnam FC	10
5	Ko Kyung-min	Busan IPark	9
	Lee Jeong-hyeop	Busan IPark
	Cristian Dănălache	Daejeon Citizen
	Park Sung-ho	Seongnam FC
	Jin Chang-soo	Bucheon FC 1995
10	Baek Sung-dong	Suwon FC	8
10	Jeong Jae-hee	FC Anyang	8

Top assist providers

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Chang Hyuk-jin	Ansan Greeners	13
2	Jung Won-jin	Gyeongnam FC	10
3	Alex Bruno	Gyeongnam FC	8
3	Kim Shin	Bucheon FC 1995	8
5	Atsuki Wada	Seoul E-Land FC	7
6	Rômulo	Busan IPark	6
	Lee Ho-seok	Daejeon Citizen
	Kim Shin	Bucheon FC 1995
9	Kim Bong-rae	Suwon FC	5
	Lee Ju-yong	Asan Mugunghwa
	Jeong Jae-hee	FC Anyang

Attendance

Attendants who entered with free ticket were not counted.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	FC Anyang	60,078	10,683	1,360	3,338	+82.7%^†
2	Seongnam FC	50,427	6,700	1,410	2,802	−58.4%^†
3	Ansan Greeners	48,635	8,405	915	2,702	n/a^†
4	Busan IPark	43,302	6,337	1,024	2,406	+56.8%^†
5	Gyeongnam FC	39,273	7,278	713	2,182	+81.8%^†
6	Daejeon Citizen	38,787	5,136	1,032	2,155	−15.2%^†
7	Suwon FC	38,655	8,455	711	2,148	−51.0%^†
8	Asan Mugunghwa	35,188	7,933	726	1,955	+94.5%^†
9	Bucheon FC 1995	35,047	7,209	0	1,947	−6.4%^†
10	Seoul E-Land	28,996	4,531	631	1,611	+22.9%^†
	League total	418,388	10,683	0	2,324	+54.3%^†

Updated to games played on 29 October 2017
Source: K League Classic
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in K League Classic.

Awards

The 2016 K League Awards was held on 20 November 2017.^[1]

Main awards

Best XI

Position	Player	Club
Goalkeeper	Lee Bum-soo	Gyeongnam FC
Defenders	Choi Jae-soo	Gyeongnam FC
	Park Ji-soo	Gyeongnam FC
	Ivan Herceg	Gyeongnam FC
	Woo Joo-sung	Gyeongnam FC
Midfielders	Jung Won-jin	Gyeongnam FC
	Hwang In-beom	Daejeon Citizen
	Moon Ki-han	Bucheon FC 1995
	Bae Ki-jong	Gyeongnam FC
Forwards	Marcão	Gyeongnam FC
Forwards	Lee Jeong-hyeop	Busan IPark

Player of the Round

Round	Player	Club
1	Lee Jung-hyup	Busan IPark
2	Heo Beom-san	Busan IPark
3	Kim Eun-sun	Asan Mugunghwa
4	Cho Seok-jae	FC Anyang
5	Kim Min-kyun	FC Anyang
6	Lee Jung-hyup	Busan IPark
7	Jeong Jae-hee	FC Anyang
8	Kim Min-kyun	FC Anyang
9	Lee Seung-hyun	Suwon FC
10	Kim Min-kyun	FC Anyang
11	Raúl Tarragona	Ansan Greeners
12	Marcão	Gyeongnam FC
13	Marcão	Gyeongnam FC
14	Lim Sang-hyub	Busan IPark
15	Lee Kyu-seong	Busan IPark
16	Cristian Dănălache	Daejeon Citizen
17	Kim Shin	Bucheon FC 1995
18	Danny Morais	Busan IPark

Round	Player	Club
19	Baek Sung-dong	Suwon FC
20	Lee Seung-hyun	Suwon FC
21	Go Myeong-seok	Bucheon FC 1995
22	Kim Dong-chan	Seongnam FC
23	Hwang In-beom	Daejeon Citizen
24	Jung Won-jin	Gyeongnam FC
25	Marcão	Gyeongnam FC
26	Choi Oh-baek	Seoul E-Land
27	Choi Oh-baek	Seoul E-Land
28	Ko Kyung-min	Busan IPark
29	Kim Chan-hee	Daejeon Citizen
30	Kim Hyun	Asan Mugunghwa
31	Marcão	Gyeongnam FC
32	Kim Kyeong-min	Busan IPark
33	Marcão	Gyeongnam FC
34	Ryu Won-woo	Bucheon FC 1995
35	Jeong Hyeon-cheol	Gyeongnam FC
36	Baek Sung-dong	Suwon FC

Manager of the Month

Month	Manager	Club	Division
March	Jo Sung-hwan	Jeju United	K League Classic
April	Kim Jong-boo	Gyeongnam FC	K League Challenge
May	Choi Yun-kyum	Gangwon FC	K League Classic
June	Choi Kang-hee	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	K League Classic
July	Seo Jung-won	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	K League Classic
August	Hwang Sun-hong	FC Seoul	K League Classic
September	Kim Do-hoon	Ulsan Hyundai	K League Classic
October	André	Daegu FC	K League Classic