Kim Seung-gyu was born on 30 September 1990 in Ulsan, South Korea. He came through Ulsan Hyundai's academy and broke into senior football as a technically secure goalkeeper, comfortable with both traditional shot-stopping and the increasingly important demand to play passes under pressure.
His club career has moved between Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia. He won major honours with Ulsan, played in Japan for Vissel Kobe and Kashiwa Reysol, and later joined Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia. These spells made him one of the most internationally experienced Korean goalkeepers of his generation.
In 2025 he joined FC Tokyo and renewed for the 2026 season. As of May 2026 he is with FC Tokyo in Japan, using his experience and distribution to remain in contention despite injury interruptions that have affected parts of his recent career.
Kim debuted for South Korea in 2013 and has been involved in several World Cup cycles, including 2014, 2018 and 2022. He was the first-choice goalkeeper at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and has continued to compete with Jo Hyeon-woo through the 2023 AFC Asian Cup and the 2026 cycle.
Standing around 1.87 m, Kim is a right-footed goalkeeper known for positioning, handling and calm passing. His profile is closer to a modern build-up goalkeeper than a pure reflex specialist, making him comparable to Jung Sung-ryong's distribution with a more assertive command style.