According to the federation, the annual salary was calculated based on the actual payment of basic salary plus various allowances (playout allowance, victory allowance, offensive point allowance, and other options). The allowance included allowances for K-League, FA Cup, and AFC Champions League games during the 2023 season. Gimcheon Sangmu, a military team, was excluded from the calculation.
All players who have been registered with each club at least once during the entire 2023 season are eligible for calculation. Players who joined or left the team halfway through the season were included in a number proportional to the length of time they actually belonged to the team. For example, if only half of the season was on the team, it was calculated as 0.5.
Among Korean players, Kim Young-kwon (1.53 billion won) of Ulsan, Kim Jin-soo (1.42 billion won) of Jeonbuk, Cho Hyun-woo (1.3 billion won), Hong Jeong-ho (1.17 billion won) of Jeonbuk, and Lee Seung-woo (1.11 billion won) of Suwon FC ranked first to fifth in annual salary.
Among foreign players, the top five in annual pay were Daegu Cesinha (1.55 billion won), Ulsan Bako (1.52 billion won), Jeonbuk Gustavo (1.46 billion won), Incheon Gerso (1.41 billion won), and Incheon Mpoku (1.32 billion won). 스포츠토토
The total annual salary spent by all K League 1 clubs in the 2023 season was 138.567123 billion won. By club, Jeonbuk Hyundai was followed by Ulsan HD 18.33 billion 40731 million won, FC Seoul was 13.239655 billion won, and Jeju United was followed by 11.9 billion 2166 billion won.
Ranked second in spending, Ulsan ranked atop in the Hana One Q K League 1 2023. Suwon Samsung, the only team to be demoted last season, ranked sixth overall with 10.68 billion won (9.9 million U.S. dollars). Korea’s annual salary for players totaled 7.5 billion won (7.5 billion dollars), ranking fifth after Jeonbuk, Ulsan, Jeju, and Seoul.
The average annual salary for each player in the K League 1 is 295.452 million won. The average annual salary for domestic players was 231.58 million won, and that for foreign players was 775.351 million won. The average annual salary for each player in each club was 577.66 million won for Ulsan, 484.06 million won for Jeonbuk, and 384.976 million won for Jeju.
The total annual salary of the 12 K League 2 clubs was 46.8 billion won, and the average annual salary per person was 185,546,000 won. By club, Busan spent the largest amount of 5.914,673 million won, followed by Seoul E-Land with 5.483,932 billion won and Anyang with 5.245,290 million won.