Will Korean striker Cho Gyu-seong (Midtjylland) follow the same path as his teammate who dominated the Danish stage and advanced to Italy’s Serie A?
The Italian media ‘Calcioline’ reported on the 15th (Korean time), “What if there is a place for ‘Griffin’ (Genoa’s nickname) as a Korean soccer player in the future?”
The media, which mainly reports on teams based in cities located between Milan in northern Italy, Turin and Rome in central Italy, such as Fiorentina, Bologna and Genoa, said, “As we know, anything is possible in football and it is probably almost unthinkable for a player to arrive in Genoa. “It’s work,” he said.
He added, “We are talking about striker Cho Kyu-sung, who recently made headlines by scoring a goal against Saudi Arabia led by coach Roberto Mancini.” Cho Kyu-sung led the team to a 1-0 victory by scoring the winning goal in the 32nd minute of the first half in a friendly match between Saudi Arabia and the national team held at St. James Park in Newcastle, England on the 13th.
Thanks to Cho Kyu-sung’s winning goal, coach Jürgen Klinsmann, who leads the Korean national soccer team, succeeded in reporting his first win in an international match in six games since taking office.
Cho Gyu-sung, who has recently shown impressive performances for his team Midtjylland and the national team, has aroused the interest of Genoa, one of the Italian Serie A clubs. Genoa, which boasts 130 years of history, finished second in Italy’s Serie B (second division) last season and succeeded in promotion. Starting from the 2023/24 season, he will play in the first division.
Genoa, whose top goal is to remain in Serie A after returning to Serie A a year after finishing 19th in the league in the 2021/22 season and being relegated to the second division, has expressed interest in Cho Kyu-sung, who has been showing good performance since recently entering Europe.
Regarding Cho Kyu-sung, the media said, “Cho Kyu-sung, who is a central striker and can also play as a left or right winger, would be of interest in ‘major’ competitions, and Genoa can provide this opportunity,” and said, “Genoa can provide this opportunity.” He explained that being able to play for A could tempt Jo Gyu-sung.
At the same time, he said, “Cho Kyu-sung signed a long-term contract with Midtjylland that expires in June 2028, but at least for now, his value will not exceed 5 million euros (about 7.1 billion won). Is this a possible deal? Maybe yes.” He argued that recruiting would not be impossible if payment was made.
There are three main reasons why Genoa is interested in Cho Kyu-sung. First of all, as soon as he debuted in the Danish 1st division, he started scoring goals and was recognized for his skills.
Kyu-seong Cho scored the first goal for both teams in the 7th minute of the second half when the game was tied 0-0 in the away game against Viborg in the 8th round of the 2023/24 Danish Superliga held at Viborg Stadium in Viborg, Denmark on the 16th. . On this day, Midtjylland was unable to protect Cho Kyu-sung’s first goal and ended up drawing 2-2 after a difficult battle, but the outstanding skills of the Korean striker were reaffirmed.
Cho Kyu-sung, who scored multiple goals with a header against Ghana at last year’s Qatar World Cup, becoming the first player in Korean soccer history to score two goals in one World Cup game, is showing off high-quality post play among larger Danish players, such as scoring his first goal in Denmark with a header.
This day was no different, as Brazilian striker Paulinho rushed from the right side of the penalty area to a cross from the left side and hit it with his head like a hammer. The ball bounced once in the goal area and bounced into the net.
Cho Kyu-sung, who left Jeonbuk and joined Midtjylland in mid-July, recorded 4 goals in 7 Superliga games and tied for 4th place in the scoring rankings. Since one of the players who scored one goal more than Cho Kyu-seong transferred to another league, it is safe to say that he is actually in third place. Including the goals scored in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifiers, he scored 5 goals in 12 official games.
Previously, Cho Kyu-sung celebrated his debut with a header goal in the home game against Hvidoure on July 22, the opening game of the US Twilan, and announced his smooth sailing on the European stage. Cho Gyu-seong was also selected as one of the best 11 in the first round by the Superliga.
Then, in the home game against Silkeborg on July 31, he scored a cool right-footed diagonal shot from inside the penalty area, showing that he is a striker who is good at shots with his feet in addition to headers. Midtjylland also won two games in a row, thanks to Cho Kyu-sung’s two consecutive goals.
In the third round match held on the 7th of last month, Cho Gyu-seong played for 10 minutes in the second half because he was worried about the aftereffects of playing all 120 minutes until overtime in the UEFA Europa Conference League held just before, but he succeeded in scoring in three consecutive games. However, the team lost 1-4, so the shine faded.바카라
Afterwards, out of the four Super Liga games that Midtjylland played, he struggled and failed to score, missing six rounds due to a hamstring (back muscle) injury, etc., and the team fell to mid-tier, hovering around sixth place among 12 Super Liga teams. They were eliminated by Poland’s Legia Warsaw in the final playoffs of the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifiers.
Meanwhile, he announced his health by scoring a goal again in the 8th round.
It is even more encouraging that the score continued to increase in the A match. Cho Gyu-seong, who found a turning point, showed that he was back in form by scoring a spectacular header in his first game after returning to his team. He made consecutive appearances as a starter in the international match against Wales and against Saudi Arabia, and in particular, in the 32nd minute of the first half against Saudi Arabia, he scored a header goal after a ball was mistakenly cleared by the opponent, leading to a 1-0 victory. On this day, Cho Gyu-seong not only scored his goals but also toyed with his opponent’s defense, showing that he had further improved his skills in Europe.
And he made full use of that sense and showed off his skills to the fullest in the game against Viborg.
In addition to the goal width, it cannot be left out that the goal-making power is very high compared to the playing time. This season, in the Danish Superliga, Cho Kyu-seong appeared in 7 games, excluding the 6th round away game against Norsjällland, where he missed due to injury, and appeared as a starter 6 times. But he never played the full 90 minutes.
Cho Kyu-sung, who played 72 minutes until the 27th minute of the second half in the opening game against Hvidobre and was out, played until the 28th minute of the second half in the Silkeborg game and was substituted out. Then, in the 3rd round, he came on as a substitute in the 35th minute of the second half, and in the 4th round against Baile, he only played until the 8th minute of the second half and left the ground relatively early.
Cho Gyu-seong, who started in the 5th round match against Bronnbue but was substituted in the 19th minute of the first half due to a hamstring injury and missed the 6th round, recorded the most playing time in the match against AGF on the 3rd, just before the international break, and played until 40 minutes in the second half.
And in the game against Viborg, where he scored again after four regular league games, he sweated until the final whistle sounded for the first time in the second half.
As a result, he did not have a lot of playing time, but Cho Gyu-seong is showing the explosive power of a top-ranked striker in the Super Liga in terms of scoring compared to playing time. As Midtjylland is participating in the Europa Conference League qualifiers, his playing time in 7 games during the 1st to 8th rounds of the Superliga is only 402 minutes. Ultimately, this means that there is about 1 goal per 100 minutes, or about 1 point per game. Since he has one assist here, he adds one attack point per 80 minutes.
In addition, the transfer rumors about Cho Kyu-sung excited fans because the Midtjylland striker advanced to Serie A by performing well in the Danish league. Danish winger Gustav Isaksen, born in 2001, left Midtjylland on the 8th, signing a five-year contract with Italian powerhouse SS Lazio.
At the time, Isaacsen was Denmark’s top scorer last season, scoring 18 goals in the league alone. Lazio, ranked second in Serie A the previous season, highly evaluated Isaacsen’s performance and paid a transfer fee of 12 million euros (18 billion won) to recruit him. Therefore, it was expected that if Cho Kyu-seong, who is currently scoring his fourth league goal, becomes the best striker in the Danish Superliga like Isaksen, his chances of advancing to the big league will increase.
Not long after Jo Kyu-sung set foot in Europe, interest from the big leagues has already shown, raising curiosity about when offers from top league clubs will come. When Cho Gyu-seong moved to Midtjylland, the Danish league was ranked 17th in the UEFA league rankings, a mid-tier league, and Midtjylland was a mid-tier league in Denmark, so there was a lot of regret, asking, “Why are you going there?” The opinion was that if Cho Kyu-sung fails in Denmark, he will only return with his pride crushed.
This also led to criticism of Jeonbuk director Park Ji-sung, a Korean soccer legend, who contacted him by phone here and there throughout the summer and came up with suitable conditions in terms of transfer fee, salary, and playing time. However, in the last game in Jeonbuk, Cho Gyu-seong refuted, saying, “I don’t know why Director Park is being criticized. It was my choice.” He was then recognized as one of the top strikers in the United States and scored by slamming into the goal.
The Danish league is not as low-level as some suggest. In fact, it ranks higher than the Greek league, which ranks 19th. In addition, Denmark is a country that reached the semifinals of the European Football Championship two years ago, and as can be seen in the match played by Cho Kyu-seong, their popularity is high, attracting many spectators and showing off high-level technology. Since Danish players have good physiques, if Cho Kyu-seong succeeds in Denmark, there is a good possibility that he will move to Germany or other Western European leagues.
When Kim Min-jae joined Fenerbahce, his ranking in the Turkiye League was not high, hovering around the top 15.
In addition, it is good news that Midtjylland has players entering the big leagues one after another this summer. In addition to Isaacson’s move to Lazio, Midtjylland striker Sori Cava also moved to Las Palmas, a promoted team in Spain’s La Liga, this summer. Rasmus Høirund, a Danish striker currently playing for Manchester United, is also an example of someone who went from Denmark to Atalanta in Italy to Manchester United.
In particular, it is known that the agent who arranged Cho Kyu-sung’s transfer is from Italy, so Cho Kyu-sung’s transfer to Genoa has become a persuasive transfer theory in its own way. It is also expected to be of interest to domestic soccer fans to quickly predict the new destination of Cho Kyu-sung, who is in a tight spot in Denmark.
In the case of Serie A, due to financial difficulties among clubs, it has recently been acting as an intermediate base to England or Spain. As the route is to select high-cost players and send them to the Premier League, strikers like Cho Gyu-sung who are active in mid-sized European leagues are in the spotlight.