The Jeonnam Dragons (Korean: 전남 드래곤즈) are a South Korean professional football club based in the city of Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. The Dragons play their home matches at the Gwangyang Football Stadium, nicknamed the "Dragon Dungeon", one of the first football-specific stadiums in South Korea. They have won the Korean FA Cup four times (1997, 2006, 2007 and 2021), the Asian Cup Winners' Cup (runners-up) in 1999 and became K League runners-up in 1997.
History
The club was founded on 16 December 1994 as Chunnam Dragons,[1] and appointed former South Korean international Jung Byung-tak as their first manager to oversee their first ever league match which took place on 25 March 1995. Chunnam started life slowly with mid-table finishes during its first few years, but recorded their best ever finish in 1997 when they finished as K League runners-up.[2] In the same year, however, they won their first trophy after winning the 1997 Korean FA Cup, beating Chunan Ilhwa Chunma 1–0 in the final.[2] In 1999, they finished as runners-up of the Asian Cup Winners' Cup after beating J-League giants Kashima Antlers 4–1 in the semi-finals, and losing 3–2 against Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia in the final.[3]