Korean footballers’ exodus and its factors:Player migration to China and the Middle East

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the trend of K league exodus and its factors. Methods Qualitative case study was conducted by selecting 9 footballers and 7 their agents as the participants who have migrated from South Korea to China and the Middle East. Results The factors of migration were categorized as three push and pull factors such as economy (individual income and club's profit), policy (employment for foreign and military service) and environment (markets in home and abroad). To understand sport migration in the economic factor, there should be the environmental condition (overseas market) to pay high salaries and transfer fee to individuals and their clubs, and at the same time, the domestic market should be relatively poor environment. In addition, this study overcame limitations of economic and environmental factors by classifying Asian quota system and military service into political factor, and found the specificity (local context) of K league. Conclusions In conclusion, this study can be regarded as the first empirical work on sport labor migration in Korea and valuable as basic data of follow-up studies.