This July, Coupang invited Tottenham Hotspur and Sevilla FC to play in Korea for the first ever “Coupang Play Series.” On July 13, Tottenham played Team K League, a squad of 24 formed with two players from each of the 12 teams in K League 1, the top professional football division of South Korea. Then, on July 16, Tottenham went head-to-head with Sevilla at the Suwon World Cup Stadium. Combined, the two matches drew in 3 million WOW members watching the match live, with nearly 110,000 total WOW members attending the matches in-person. The Coupang Newsroom Team also attended the Tottenham v. Sevilla match to report.
On Saturday evening of July 16, tens of thousands of Coupang WOW members congregated to Suwon City to watch Tottenham Hotspur play Sevilla FC in a friendly match. The excitement was palpable even at Sadang Station—a nearly 40-minute bus ride away from Suwon World Cup Stadium, where the match was being held—with an over 50-meter-long line of excited fans in white Tottenham jerseys waiting to board the bus to the match venue.
At the stadium, even more people could be spotted donning the Tottenham jerseys with Son Heung-min’s No. 7 prominently displayed. “Sonny,” unquestionably the most popular football player among Korean fans today, if not of all time, was the major draw for the near 44,000 WOW members who had braved the crowds to attend such a large-scale event for the first time since the pandemic.
A variety of fun activities had been prepared for WOW members at the central plaza in front of the Suwon World Cup Stadium, such as a Tottenham jersey sales booth, a photo zone for both teams, and a prize draw corner.
Excitement continued to mount as the names of the starters showed up one-by-one on the monitor before the players entered the pitch. Cheers could be heard as the names of international football superstars such as Harry Kane and Eric Dier appeared, followed by a deafening roar across the entire stadium as Son Heung-min’s name finally came up.
The whistle blew to start the match and the game was on. Both the Spurs and Sevilla, bound for the UEFA Champions League to represent the English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga, respectively, played with intensity as they fought for the upper hand. The first half was a tight battle with close opportunities on both sides, and the crowd erupting in cheers at every key moment. Tensions flared briefly at the end of a goalless first half, when a scuffle broke out between some of the players before it was quickly snuffed out.
The crowd right after Tottenham’s goal by Harry Kane
Five minutes into the second half, Son connected with his partner Kane from just outside the penalty box for the first goal of the match. Kane’s goal was met with an equalizer from Sevilla’s Ivan Rakitić at the 64-minute mark. The match ended with a draw, with the players walking around the stadium and greeting the Korean fans to signal the end of the Coupang Play Series.
The WOW members all left the stadium with bright expressions, praising the players for giving them a good match. “It was really nice to be able to enjoy a great game thanks to Coupang Play, and it would be nice to have more content like this in the future,” said A-rim Yoon, a WOW member who watched the match. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a football match, and it was so much fun! It was a while since I’ve saw so many people, and it was nice to see European players after only watching the K League. I’m getting so much out of Coupang Play!”
“We prepared the Coupang Play Series to provide fun and new experiences for the WOW members who have supported us throughout the years,” said a Coupang representative. “We are proud to have shared this experience with the tens of thousands of WOW members who joined us in person, as well as the millions of WOW members watching the match live through Coupang Play.”
