Notable Cast: Ahn Jung-hwan Lee Dong-gook, Cho Won-hee, Kim Yong-man, Kim Seong-joo
The Gentlemen’s League is a South Korean reality TV series following the journey of Eojjeoda Avengers, an amateur soccer team. Korean soccer legends Ahn Jung-hwan and Lee Dong-gook work together to create the best amateur soccer team with ultimate goal of winning titles all around the country. However unlike other amateur soccer teams, there is 1 major requirement to join their team: be a national Korean athlete.
The season begins with a series of try-outs to gauge the applicants’ soccer skills and see how their personalities will blend within the team. Korean national athletes and olympians representing a large variety of sports attend the try-outs in an attempt to join the team and bring greater awareness to their sports. Although not all the applicants have soccer experience nor expertise, Ahn Jung-hwan and Lee Dong-gook gauge each athlete’s potential and ability to learn the fundamentals as a key factor if they will be able to join the team.
Once the team has been selected, The Gentlemen’s League consists of 20 members covering a large range of sports from swimming, tennis, MMA to lesser known sports such as kabadi, luge, and skeleton. The show then follows their progression from learning the basics and awkwardly fumbling on the field to becoming soccer legends. Not to mention, it also captures the team’s fun “training activities” such as human chicken fights, bootcamps from hell, and fierce tussling matches with army members. More importantly, the show highlights the athletes’ camaraderie with one another as they build close relationships with one another on and off the field.
As their technical skills progress, Eojjeoda Avengers begin facing increasingly challenging opponents as they begin their journey to win titles in each of South Korea’s provinces. Not to mention there are also guest appearances from international soccer legends like Ruud Gullit to Korean soccer legends like Hwang Hee-chan and Hwang Ui-jo to provide valuable lessons to the novice team.
As the 2022 Fifa World Cup kicks off this week and you find yourself interested about soccer and need a wholesome, yet entertaining show to learn more about the rules of the game or just love sports in general, I would highly recommend watching The Gentlemen’s League!
