This is the story of Gimcheon Half Moon FC (hereinafter referred to as Gimcheon Half Moon), a women’s futsal club with an average age of 40s in the squad. The Gimcheon Half Moon was founded two years ago in 2022 based on the city of Gimcheon. There was no women’s futsal team in Gimcheon before. However, thanks to the support and help of Gimcheon City and the K-League’s Gimcheon Sangmu teams, we were able to see light in the world.
The Gimcheon half-moon consists of a total of 20 female athletes. Kim Yun-chan, an incumbent soccer player from Gimcheon University’s soccer department, teaches his members in the form of talent donation. Lee Seong-ji, the general manager of the Gimcheon half-moon, said, “I come to guide you every Friday from Yangju, Gyeonggi Province to Gimcheon.”
Lee is the oldest (55) player in the half moon of Gimcheon, and also contributed to the creation of the first female soccer team in Gimcheon called Happy Girl Crew in 2021. At first, the team was run with some sponsorship from the city, but since taking charge of the team, Lee has spent his own money to form a team. Again, he paid for food and rental cars to participate in the competition.
The Gimcheon half-moon won the “2024 Best Eleven Yeongdeok Football Festa Mother’s Futsal Final” at 5:10 p.m. at the 3rd pitch of the air pitch at Ganggudaege Stadium in Yeongdeok-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. The Gimcheon half-moon defeated Pohang Golden A.jumma 3-1 in the first match of the tournament.
Kimcheon Half Moon boasts an average age of 40 with the oldest team leader Lee at the forefront. The youngest member of the team is 24 years old, more than 30 years older than Lee. Despite the generation gap between parents and children, they harmonize without hesitation to display the best teamwork. The ceremony on the podium at the competition also showed unique harmony.
Lee said, “Today’s game was not difficult. The popularity of women’s futsal is increasing, and I hope many women of all ages will participate. I’m also old, but I’m relieving stress by playing futsal. I don’t think there’s any better exercise than this,” he said.
When asked to show off the team, he said, “The members have various jobs and personalities, and all of them are so good that they can unite well. In the case of women’s futsal, members often form small groups, and I also had a culture of playing with each other when there were many people when the team was launched, but now the unity is so good.”
Gimcheon Blue Moon had never ranked third in a competition held in other regions, but it was thrilled to win the Football Festa. I hope you will strengthen your health as a representative women’s futsal club in Gimcheon Blue Moon, which claims to enjoy soccer rather than performance.