{"id":261279,"date":"2026-05-21T02:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/uncategorized\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T02:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:02:24","slug":"why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women’s Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

On May 19, North Korea\u2019s Naegohyang Women\u2019s Football Team, in South Korea for an AFC Women\u2019s Champions League semifinal, opened a public training session that caught observers off guard: a large number of players were wearing Nike soccer cleats.<\/p>\n

Nike, the U.S.-based sports giant, drew the most attention, though a few players wore Germany\u2019s Adidas. In a country where anti-American sentiment is practically official policy, seeing so many athletes in Nike boots felt notably incongruous.<\/p>\n

At the recent U-17 Women\u2019s Asian Cup, one member of North Korea\u2019s squad wore Asics cleats. That team defeated Japan in the final, became national heroes and even held a car parade in Pyongyang on the 19th.<\/p>\n

Still, sports often operate apart from geopolitics. Iran\u2019s national team, despite more than 40 years of hostility with the U.S., has also been seen in Nike. When talented young athletes have the chance to excel, governments should support them. If a particular brand helps performance, let them wear it\u2014Nike or Asics\u2014and recognize the footwear craftsmanship coming out of the U.S. and Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korean women’s football team surprises with Nike cleats during AFC Champions League training in South Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/thumbnail\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/thumb-d762d29c-9e18-4082-aa17-bb540907d7e7.jpg","footnotes":""},"categories":[278095],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women's Champions League<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"North Korean women's football team surprises with Nike cleats during AFC Champions League training in South Korea.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ko_KR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women's Champions League\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Korean women's football team surprises with Nike cleats during AFC Champions League training in South Korea.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"nonhyeon-ilbo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-20T17:02:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-20T17:02:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3\"},\"headline\":\"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women’s Champions League\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T17:02:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-20T17:02:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/\"},\"wordCount\":204,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/\",\"name\":\"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women's Champions League\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T17:02:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-20T17:02:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"North Korean women's football team surprises with Nike cleats during AFC Champions League training in South Korea.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\ud648\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/category\/sports\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women’s Champions League\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"alternateName\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3\",\"name\":\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/author\/fastmaster\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women's Champions League","description":"North Korean women's football team surprises with Nike cleats during AFC Champions League training in South Korea.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/","og_locale":"ko_KR","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women's Champions League","og_description":"North Korean women's football team surprises with Nike cleats during AFC Champions League training in South Korea.","og_url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/","og_site_name":"nonhyeon-ilbo","article_published_time":"2026-05-20T17:02:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-20T17:02:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/"},"author":{"name":"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3"},"headline":"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women’s Champions League","datePublished":"2026-05-20T17:02:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-20T17:02:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/"},"wordCount":204,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg","articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"ko-KR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/","name":"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women's Champions League","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-05-20T17:02:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-20T17:02:24+00:00","description":"North Korean women's football team surprises with Nike cleats during AFC Champions League training in South Korea.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ko-KR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ko-KR","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0263\/image-76a92caf-f3a7-4dac-a9e6-534690489e78.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/sports\/2026\/05\/21\/why-north-korean-soccer-players-are-wearing-nike-cleats-a-surprising-twist-in-the-afc-womens-champions-league\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\ud648","item":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports","item":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/category\/sports\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why North Korean Soccer Players Are Wearing Nike Cleats: A Surprising Twist in the AFC Women’s Champions League"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/","name":"nonhyeon-ilbo","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization"},"alternateName":"nonhyeon-ilbo","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ko-KR"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization","name":"nonhyeon-ilbo","alternateName":"nonhyeon-ilbo","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ko-KR","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"nonhyeon-ilbo"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3","name":"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/author\/fastmaster\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}