The fans of the South Korean national team celebrate in Seoul the promotion to the round of 2022 World Cup (YouTube)
When Cristiano Ronaldo was substituted during the second half of the game against South Korea on Friday, he hissed some very rude words, and the media tried to attribute it to his anger with coach Fernando Santos.
The Portuguese star vehemently denied this and claimed that he was actually angry at an insolent Korean player who demanded that he get off the field faster.
Photos published later do support this version - and the "annoying" opponent was Cho Gyu-sung.
Cristiano might not be particularly fond of him at the moment, but it's likely they could find topics to talk about together, and the Korean could get some advice on dealing with sudden popularity.
In this respect, Cho is facing an absolutely significant challenge.
Ronaldo boasts that he is the footballer with the highest number of followers on social networks, and this issue was discussed a lot in the scandalous interview he recently gave to Piers Morgan, but he too has never enjoyed such a sharp growth in the number of fans.
Before the start of the World Cup, the striker had 30 thousand followers on Instagram.
After the first match against Uruguay, in which he entered as a late substitute, the number increased to 360 thousand.
By the end of the second game against Ghana, in which Cho became the first Korean in history to score a double in the World Cup, he already had 1.2 million followers.
Currently, it is 2.2 million, and it is not expected to stop.
Considering the fact that there are only six photos in the account, and only one of them was published during the World Cup, this is a pretty crazy figure.
The photo in question has already gained two million likes, and gives a good match to the last photo posted by Ronaldo - it received eight million likes.
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A post shared by 조규성 (gue sung cho) (@whrbtjd)
Cho's miraculous rise to the status of a network anchor lies mainly in his appearance.
The new number 9 of South Korea is simply too handsome, and hundreds of girls have already sent him marriage proposals - which made him publicly announce that he is already in a romantic relationship, and even hang up the phone that did not stop vibrating.
There is a reasonable basis for assuming that he will have to hire an expert from now on in order to turn the matter into advertising contracts and money.
However, beyond that it is also about the meteoric rise of a gifted footballer, who until recently was quite unknown not only outside his homeland, but also in Korea itself.
He is already 24 years old, but only last year he was still playing in the second league, by virtue of being a soldier in regular service.
In fact, around the age of 19, Cho considered giving up the hobby called football and concentrating on a more promising profession - for example, fashion design which attracted him very much.
He then played for Gwangju University, and his coach informed him that he had no future in the game even though the team came second in the Korean University Championship.
However you look at it, Cho was not very successful in his role as a full-back, and it was argued that he did not have good enough game vision.
The upheaval came when his best friend, Mo Jae-Hyun who was playing as a winger, signed with a professional team, and the university had to find a replacement for him.
In the absence of other options, it was suggested that Chu be diverted there, and it soon became clear that it was a real bingo.
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Paolo Bento (Photo: Reuters)
The tall guy upgraded his head game, and his presence in the box really bothered the amateur defenders he met.
After several games, he believed again that it was possible to try to advance in the field, and persistence paid off.
At the age of 21, he signed a contract with a team from the second division.
A year later, the luxury club Jeonbuk summoned him to its ranks, and Cho even had the honor of winning in the Asian Champions League.
But fame was still far from him, and at the beginning of last year he was drafted into the army for 12 months.
In this framework, he was transferred to a club called Gymchon, intended for professional soccer players who undergo regular service.
She played in 2021 in the second division, and Cho's 13 goals helped her quite sensationally qualify for the top division.
Few players make it to the minor league team, but Chu did it, and his acclimatization was quick.
He was particularly excited to collaborate with Son Jung-min, saying that he does not miss a single Tottenham broadcast to follow him and learn from his collaboration with Harry Kane.
According to him, following the game of the captain of the England national team helped him to improve his position on the field and his tactical understanding.
Cho also impressed in the Gimchun uniform in the first division, and was discharged from the army in September to return to Jeonbuk just in time to finish as top scorer in the run-up to the World Cup.
Now he has a business with Brazil.
Cho Gua-song (Photo: Reuters)
The national coach Paolo Bento was not convinced whether to give a striker with no European experience the place in the team, and Cho broadcast a willingness to sacrifice himself for the team.
"Son is a bit injured now, and will only be able to run 7 kilometers in the game, so I will run 14 kilometers for him," he stated.
Against Uruguay, Wang Oi-ju, the Bordeaux scorer who moved to Olympiakos in the summer, still started in the center of attack, but the result remained zero.
Chou, who came on as a substitute towards the end, impressed more, got his chance against Ghana, and took it with both hands.
The first hit was excellent, the second - with a most amazing strike - already immediately entered the pantheon, and the social networks were in an uproar.
The thing is, even a short video of him sitting on the bench resulted in millions of views on TikTok.
The combination of beauty and ability caused a phenomenon that Korea had not known before, and the striker is dealing with it now.
"I don't want to be very famous, and even if I am very famous I will remain humble," he said.
It will be very interesting to see if he will really be up to the task and keep his feet on the ground, because the professional interest in him is also the emir.
In the modern world, it's very difficult for an unknown player to surprise the scouts, but that's exactly what happened to Cho, and now many teams are lining up to explore the possibility of signing him.
Borussia Dortmund and Celtic have been mentioned as possible targets, and they are also well aware of the marketing potential of an extremely popular Korean star.
With a high work rate, excellent hitting and thousands of tourists who are willing to pay a lot to see him and buy his shirts, he appears to be a player with a bright future in every possible way.
Now, after the entertaining confrontation with Ronaldo that ended in victory and a sensational qualification to the round of 16, tonight (21:00) he also has business with Brazil.
The Celso people had never heard of him before, but in the last two days they had to gather data and look at how to deal with this new icon.
Who knows, maybe Chu is planning something special for them as well, and then the number of his followers will reach tens of millions in minutes.
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