Man City, Atletico to hold open training sessions as part of their Korea tour

The official poster for this year's Coupang Play Series shows the fixtures for two exhibition matches involving Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and an all-star Team K League. [COUPANG PLAY]

Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, who are visiting Korea in July for a pre-season tour organized by Coupang Play, will hold open training sessions on July 26 and 29 through which fans can meet the players.

Coupang Play — a streaming service owned by Korean e-commerce company Coupang — invited City and Atletico to take part in the second edition of the Coupang Play Series, an annual exhibition games series launched last year.

Both teams will have a chance to meet football fans in Korea and give them autographs during the open training session before they play pre-season games.

Atletico will first play Team K League — an all-star team of players drawn from the K League 1 — on July 27 at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Mapo District, western Seoul, before clashing with City on July 30 at the same venue.

Atletico will hold a training session the day before the Team K League game also at Seoul World Cup Stadium along with Team K League, while City will do so on July 29 at the same venue.

The two training sessions, however, will only be open to those who purchased class A, B or C tickets for the pre-season tour games.

Those with tickets for both pre-season games can watch City's training in person, while those with only one ticket can get access to the training on July 27.

A great number of fans are expected to gather at both training sessions, considering the teams' popularity.

City are the English treble winners this season, while Atletico have been the strongest contender in La Liga after Spanish giants FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in the past decade.

City and Atletico are not the only European teams visiting Korea this summer, however, with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Celtic and AS Roma — although the Italian club may not visit Korea, as Italian media are reporting that the club has yet to receive money from organizers — also coming to Korea to take part in Korea Tour 2023, a new exhibition series introduced this year by Stadium X and Untouchable Sport Group featuring three European sides and K League 1 side Incheon United.

On the Korea Tour, Wolves and Celtic are set to face off at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on July 26, just a day before attention will be on Seoul for the Atletico vs. K League clash.

Fans get a single day to catch their breath before the Korea Tour is in action again on July 29 as Wolves take on Roma at Incheon Asiad Stadium in Incheon. Just a day later, Man City will take center stage over in Seoul as they take on Atletico in the final game of the Coupang Play Series.

July 31 is football free, but the Korea Tour will return for one last hurrah on Aug. 1 as Roma take on Incheon United, also at Incheon Asiad Stadium.

That game caps off the week of international action, with five games in seven days across Seoul, Incheon and Suwon.

BY JIM BULLEY AND PAIK JI-HWAN [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]