Formed In: 1983
Based In: Ulsan, Republic of Korea
Play In: Korea Professional Football League (K League)
The Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i Club (which means Hyundai Tigers) were one of the first teams to join the original Korean Super League. They remain however, by English standards, a very new football team, having been formed only 25 years ago. That makes them 35 years younger than Roy Hodgson!
The Korean Super League was formed a year before Ulsan Hyundai joined (in 1983) and the original division had only 5 teams playing in it! By the time the division had changed to its current name of the K-League, the number of teams competing had greatly increased. At the moment there are 14 sides competing for the title of Korean Champions, 6 fewer than the Premier League in England.
Ulsan have been very successful since entering the league, and have won the title on two occasions (1996 and more recently in 2005). They have also finished as runners-up on 5 separate occasions.
Despite the fact that the club badge is yellow and green, Ulsan play in very distinctive blue jerseys. Home matches are staged at the Munsu Cup Stadium, nicknamed the Big Crown Stadium, which was one of many new venues built for the 2002 World Cup Finals. The Munsu stadium is even bigger than Craven Cottage, and at the moment it can hold over 44,000 people.
Staging the World Cup Finals was very important for football in Korea and the national team did remarkably well to reach the semi finals before losing to Germany.
Like many of the top professional teams in the Korean Republic, the club are owned by a large multinational business. Ulsan are associated with Hyundai, who are a world famous manufacturer of cars and ships.
The company also own the other major football team in the city. They are called Hyundai Mipo Docklands and play in the amateur National League, one level below Ulsan Hyundai.
The Korean Republic is one of the richest and most successful nations in Asia. The industrial city of Ulsan is located in the south east, and is home to over 1 million people. Many years ago Ulsan was a thriving fishing and whaling port, but in recent years lots of successful modern companies have set up businesses there.
The city currently has the world’s largest shipyard, the world’s largest oil refinery and the world’s largest car assembly plant!