Ulsan central defender Kim Young-kwon was named the highest-paid domestic player in the professional soccer K-League. Including foreign players, he ranked second overall after Brazilian striker Sejinha (Daegu).

According to the 'Status of Player Salary Expenditures by K-League Clubs in the 2023 Season' released by the Korea Professional Football League on the 4th, Kim Young-kwon's annual salary was 1.53 billion won, the highest among domestic players. The annual salary included base salary, appearance allowance, victory allowance, and attack point allowance. The 2nd place for domestic players is Jeonbuk defender Kim Jin-soo (1.42 billion won), the 3rd place is Ulsan goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo (1.3 billion won), the 4th place is Jeonbuk defender Hong Jeong-ho (1.17 billion won), and the 5th place is Suwon FC's It was striker Lee Seung-woo (1.11 billion won). In the 2022 season, Kim Young-kwon ranked second after Kim Jin-soo (1.47 billion won) with an annual salary of 1.39 billion won, but in the 2023 season, he was the only domestic player to record an annual salary of 1.5 billion won, rising to first place.

Sejingya had the highest annual salary among all K-League players in the 2023 season, with an annual salary of 1.55 billion won. The second highest foreign player salary was Bako (1.52 billion won), who played for Ulsan, and the third place was Jeonbuk's Gustavo (1.46 billion won).

Among the 12 teams in K-League 1 (first division), the club that spent the most on player salaries was Jeonbuk, which spent 19.8767 billion won. Jeonbuk ranked 4th in the 2023 season. The club with the second highest annual salary expenditure was Ulsan (18.34073 billion won). Ulsan won the championship in the 2023 season. Gwangju ranked 3rd in the league despite spending 5.95067 billion won, the least among the 12 teams, boasting ‘low cost and high efficiency’. Suwon, which ranked last and was relegated to the second division in the 2024 season, spent the sixth highest salary of 10.68038 billion won. 19가이드03