Chungbuk Cheongju FC Win 2026 K League Queen's Cup… Club's First Overall Title and Choi Da-yeon's MVP Award

Chungbuk Cheongju FC finished first in Final A at the 2026 K League Queen's Cup to win the club's first overall title. In the tournament, which drew 30 teams and about 430 players, Chungbuk Cheongju also took the MVP and Best Coach awards.

Translated from Korean with AI assistance. Read the original. Sources and original publication dates are retained.

Three-line summary

Chungbuk Cheongju FC won the club's first overall title at the 2026 K League Queen's Cup, which had 30 participating teams.
Midfielder Choi Da-yeon received the tournament MVP award, and head coach Lee Jin-won won the Best Coach award.
The matches were 6-a-side mini football, 15 minutes per match, held September 12–13 at Jecheon Football Center.

The Queen's Cup is a tournament the Korea Professional Football League launched in 2010 to increase women's participation in football. In the 2026 edition, 16 years later, 30 teams and about 430 players gathered in Jecheon. The team at the very top was Chungbuk Cheongju FC. It is the club's first overall title. This was confirmed in reports on the 13th by Footballist and Sports Donga. The MVP and Best Coach awards also came from the same team.

Chungbuk Cheongju FC's Queen's Cup Title: A Record of Two Days, September 12–13

Illustration of women's amateur football players cheering as they lift a championship trophy — Illustration of the Queen's Cup victory celebration / Graphic: Whale SV

Let's start with the dates. The club's advance announcement issued on September 4 gave the tournament period as September 11–13. On-site reports on the results give the match dates as September 12–13 and the venue as Jecheon Football Center in North Chungcheong Province. It has not been confirmed whether the 11th was for players' assembly or accommodation.

The two-day schedule was organized into a regular round and finals. The regular round was played in 6 groups of 5 teams each. The group standings from that round decided the final stage. Chungbuk Cheongju clinched the overall title as first place in Final A. The runner-up was reported to be Pohang Steelers. It was a title decided by first place in a league, not by a single championship match.

Queen's Cup Format: 6-a-Side Mini Football, 15 Minutes per Match

The Queen's Cup differs from football played with 11 players for 90 minutes. It was played as 6-a-side mini football, and each match lasted 15 minutes with no division into halves. That is 1/6 of a 90-minute match. Dividing about 430 players among 30 teams gives an average of about 14.3 players per team.

Here is how the champion was decided. Each group had 5 teams, so a team faced 4 opponents within its group. Teams that finished in the same position, from 1st to 5th in each group, were placed together in Finals A to E. Since the teams came from 6 groups, each final league was made up of 6 teams. Of these, only the first-place team in Final A took the overall title.

Queen's Cup MVP Choi Da-yeon, Best Coach Lee Jin-won

The Most Valuable Player (MVP) award went to Chungbuk Cheongju midfielder Choi Da-yeon (No. 30). In an interview with Sports Donga on the 13th, Choi said, "I'm so happy about this title that the coaching staff and players made together."

On the bench, head coach Lee Jin-won received the Best Coach award. In on-site interviews the same day, work rate and defensive ability were cited as the keys to the title. This trophy is not a league result for a men's professional team. It is an achievement by a women's amateur team that played on behalf of the club. In the Queen's Cup, which had about 430 participants, the team that laughed last was Chungbuk Cheongju.

Final A Record: Figures Differed by Outlet

The detailed records have not yet come together into one version. Three reports published on the 13th gave Chungbuk Cheongju's Final A record differently from one another. Because we could not obtain an official results sheet from the league or the club, this article does not treat detailed records, including points and goals, as confirmed. The title and the MVP award are consistent across multiple reports.

Chungbuk Cheongju's Final A Record, Compared by Report

Outlet	Type of article	Reported record
Footballist	Results report	2 wins, 3 draws
Sports Donga	Coach/MVP interviews	3 wins, 1 draw
Sports Donga	Tournament roundup	2 wins, 3 draws

Counting the number of matches offers one clue. If Final A was a 6-team league, each team played 5 matches. Adding up 2 wins and 3 draws gives 5 matches, while 3 wins and 1 draw gives 4 matches. Four matches equals the number of opponents in the regular-round groups. Still, which version is correct cannot be confirmed from these reports.

The scale also needs to be reported with care. Sports Donga reported that participants' ages and occupations had become more diverse and that participation in women's recreational football had widened. The Queen's Cup was reorganized in 2022 into a format that covers all age groups. However, whether 30 teams and about 430 players is the largest ever could not be confirmed because there is no official comparison table.

The 2026 K League Queen's Cup ended in Jecheon on the 13th. The champion team, MVP and Best Coach were cross-checked through multiple reports that carried award photos provided by the league. As of 12:00 on the 14th, an official final results sheet from the league or the club had not been obtained.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Who won the K League Queen's Cup?

At the 2026 K League Queen's Cup, Chungbuk Cheongju FC finished first in Final A and won the club's first overall title. The runner-up was reported to be Pohang Steelers.

Q. Who was the Queen's Cup MVP?

Chungbuk Cheongju FC midfielder Choi Da-yeon (No. 30) received the Most Valuable Player award. The Best Coach award went to head coach Lee Jin-won of the same team.

Q. How does the Queen's Cup format differ from regular football?

It is played as 6-a-side mini football, 15 minutes per match, with no division into halves. After a regular round in 6 groups of 5 teams each, teams with the same group position face each other in Finals A to E, and the first-place team in Final A takes the overall title.

Related Official Websites

Korea Professional Football League K League Official Website — Check tournament information and official league announcements
Chungbuk Cheongju FC Official Website — Check club news

Representative image · File photo · Not an on-site photo of the match in this article · Photo: Pexels (Laura Rincón)