The European football winter transfer window has come to an end. While European clubs, who wanted a sense of power immediately, spent a large amount of money to recruit high-quality players to reinforce their strength, the highly anticipated Taegeuk Warriors advance into Europe did not happen as much as expected.
In particular, in the transfer market held after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the effect of the national soccer team’s advancement to the round of 16 was not as great as expected.
In fact, only two players entered Europe through this transfer window, striker Oh Hyun-gyu (Celtic) and defender Park Ji-soo (Portimonense). Unfortunately, both players could not step on the Qatar World Cup stage.
Oh Hyun-kyu, who signed a contract with Celtic at the end of last month, became the first player to advance to Europe after playing in the K-League after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Oh Hyun-gyu was named to the reserve list as Bentuho’s 27th player at the 2022 Qatar World Cup last year and participated in the tournament, but was unable to step on the ground as he was not included in the final entry. 안전놀이터
Park Ji-soo, who has consistently been on the national soccer team led by coach Paulo Bento, is expected to be the third defender after Kim Min-jae (Napoli) and Kim Young-kwon (Ulsan Hyundai) in the national team as a central defensive resource. However, he was unable to participate in the World Cup in Qatar after injuring his ankle in a warm-up game against Iceland right before the final World Cup roster was announced.
Although they failed to show their skills on the World Cup stage, Oh Hyun-kyu and Park Ji-soo’s will to go to Europe was stronger than anyone else.
Initially, Oh Hyun-kyu’s original team, Suwon Samsung, hoped to advance to the European stage after playing one more season due to team circumstances. However, Oh Hyun-gyu visited coach Lee Byeong-geun’s room four times during his field training and expressed his intention to go to Europe, and the club eventually allowed the player to transfer.