Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Instagram - whrbtjd
Topics: South Korea, Football World Cup, Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay
Jack Kenmare
Topics: South Korea, Football World Cup, Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay
As a result of all the attention he's been getting at this winter's World Cup, popular South Korea forward Cho Gue-sung has been forced to turn his phone off... and it's largely down to being so damn handsome.
It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors striker, who was sat on around 20,000 followers ahead of their World Cup opener against Uruguay on November 24.
Eight days later and Cho has amassed 1.6 million fans and counting on Instagram, which is quite remarkable considering his last post was in July.
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Of course, he's earned plaudits for his efforts on the pitch.
The 24-year-old didn't start in South Korea's first game against Uruguay – a game that finished 0-0 – but he went on to bag a brace against Ghana at the Education City Stadium.
Even before his goal scoring efforts against Ghana, however, social media videos that focused on his good looks resulted in tons of marriage proposals and love letters.
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In fact, one seven-second clip of Cho Gue-sung, who has been compared to actor Park Seo-joon, has been viewed over 7.3 million times on Twitter, with posts like "Bro is beautiful," and "idk who this is but he needs to call me" featuring in the comments section.
South Korean journalist Seo Jung-hwan claims all the attention was getting too much for Cho.
In an interview with The Athletic, he said: “He had to get some rest. His phone was going all night. It was keeping him awake. He was trying to concentrate on football and, all the time, the messages were coming.”
Cho said after his exploits against Ghana: “I don’t really want to be famous. I’m only human and don’t feel anything special.”
Cho, who has scored six goals in 18 appearances for his country, is the only South Korean player to score at this winter's World Cup and already, a number of European clubs have been linked with a move for the highly-rated striker.
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In fact, South Korea FA vice-president Lee Young-pyo revealed this week that he had been contacted by a sporting director from a “very good club” in Europe about Cho.
Celtic have been linked with a January swoop for the player, as have Hungary-based side Ferencvaros.
Cho, meanwhile, is focused on the task at hand against Portugal on Friday. “It’s not over yet," he told reporters. "We still have hope, we still have one more game. We’ll prepare for that.”