The 2025-26 season of the Cambodian Premier League (CPL) gets underway this Saturday, August 9, and will run until May next year. All 11 clubs have registered their full quota of foreign players, with 66 players from 24 countries set to take part.
The figures mark an increase from last year, with all clubs opting to register the maximum six foreign players.
One major change for the upcoming season is the decision by MOI Kompong Devav FC (formerly Ministry of Interior), which had no foreign players last season, to embrace the policy and signed six new names from abroad.
Brazil and Japan are the most represented nations among the 66, with 18 and 15 players plying their trade in the Kingdom respectively. Five South Koreans will turn out for the CPL this season, with three each from Nigeria and Ghana, and two from England and Indonesia. The remaining 18 players are the sole representatives of their nations.
The breakdown by club is as follows.
Defending champions Svay Rieng kept 1 Brazilian, 1 Laotian, 2 Japanese; added 1 more Brazilian and 1 Ghanaian; plus naturalised Japanese-Cambodian Yudai Ogwa as the 7th allowed foreign-national player.
Runners up Phnom Penh Crown retained 1 South Korean; added 1 Ukrainian, 1 Dutch, 1 Romanian, 1 Bolivian, and 1 New Zealander.
Nagaworld: 5 Brazilians, 1 Japanese. Army FC (Khemara Phoumin): 5 Japanese, 1 Nigerian. MOI Kompong Devav FC: 4 Brazilians, 2 Indonesians. Visakha: signed 6 players from 6 different countries — South Korea, Latvia, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Ghana and Brazil; plus naturalised South African-Cambodian Kan Mo.
Kirivong Sok Sen Chey: players from Japan, Nepal, Brazil, Ghana, Canada and Nigeria. ISI Dangkor Sen Chey: 2 Brazilians, plus players from Sierra Leone, Japan, Nigeria and Portugal. Angkor Tiger: 3 Japanese, 2 Brazilians, and 1 from Lesotho; also includes naturalised Ivorian-Cambodian Coulibaly Abdel Kader. Boeng Ket: 2 English players, and 1 each from Brazil, Australia, Lesotho and Cameroon. Life FC: 2 Japanese, 3 South Koreans and 1 from Timor-Leste.
This influx of international talent is expected to intensify competition in the league.
The format remains the same as the previous season, with all teams meeting twice in the regular season.
The top six will facer off in an additional round of home-and-away matches to determine the league champion.
The bottom five will play each other twice to determine rankings from 7th to 11th place.
Ahead of the new season, reigning champs Svay Rieng won the Cambodian Super Cup 2025, beating Phnom Penh Crown 5–3 on penalties after a nervous 2–2 draw for new head coach Matthew McConkey.
Visakha clinched the Visakha Pre-Season Cup 2025, defeating Army FC in the qualifiers and Phnom Penh Crown 1–0 in the final.
