Cho Gue-sung

Cho Gue-sung (born 25 January 1998) is a South Korean footballer who plays as striker for Danish Superliga club Midtjylland and the South Korea national team.
Club career
Early career in South Korea
Cho played defensive midfielder during his youth career and freshman year at Gwangju University. However, Cho was not evaluated as a good midfielder by his university's head coach Lee Seung-won and changed his position to striker in 2017. In 2019, Cho joined K League 2 side FC Anyang where he was a youth player before. He was selected for the K League 2 Best XI by becoming the No. 3 goalscorer in his first professional season and transferred to K League 1 club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors the next year.
Cho had difficulty proving his worth in his first season at Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. In 2021, he joined the military team Gimcheon Sangmu to serve his mandatory duty and get a stable spot. As a result, he developed physically and technically while being trained at Gimcheon. He became the top goalscorer in the 2022 K League 1 and led Jeonbuk to the 2022 Korean FA Cup title. In January 2023, Jeonbuk received transfer bids for him from Mainz 05, Celtic and Minnesota United. Cho was attracted to Mainz and Celtic but rejected their offers after judging that his body condition was not good enough to play in Europe.
Midtjylland
On 11 July 2023, Cho signed Danish Superliga club Midtjylland on a five-year contract for a fee reported to be around £2.6 million. On 22 July 2023, he made his Danish Superliga debut with Midtjylland, scoring in a 1-0 win over Hvidovre.
International career
Cho made his senior debut for South Korea on 7 September 2021 in a World Cup qualifier against Lebanon.
In November 2022, Cho was named to the 26-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In Korea's second match at the tournament, he scored two goals against Ghana in an eventual 2–3 defeat, becoming the first South Korean player to ever score 2 or more goals in a single World Cup match. Despite losing that match, the goals proved decisive in ultimately sending Korea through to the Round of 16 on goal difference, at the expense of Uruguay. Due to his performance in 2022 FIFA World Cup, Cho proved to be one of the greatest players in the air in Qatar. The young Korean forward won 21 aerial duels, putting him second in terms of success in the air among all players at the World Cup, after Morocco’s Youssef En-Nesyri.
Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list South Korea's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cho goal.
Honours
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
K League 1: 2020
Korean FA Cup: 2020, 2022
Gimcheon Sangmu
K League 2: 2021
South Korea U23
AFC U-23 Championship: 2020
South Korea
EAFF Championship runner-up: 2022
Individual
K League 2 Best XI: 2019
Korean FA Goal of the Year: 2020
K League 1 top goalscorer: 2022
K League 1 Best XI: 2022
Korean FA Cup Most Valuable Player: 2022
Notes
References
External links
Cho Gue-sung at KFA
Gue-sung Cho at FC Midtjylland
Gue-Sung Cho at Danish Superliga
1998 births
Living people
Men's association football forwards
South Korean men's footballers
South Korea men's under-23 international footballers
South Korea men's international footballers
FC Anyang players
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors players
Gimcheon Sangmu FC players
FC Midtjylland players
K League 1 players
K League 2 players
Danish Superliga players
People from Ansan
Footballers from Gyeonggi Province
South Korean expatriate men's footballers
South Korean expatriate sportspeople in Denmark
Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark
2022 FIFA World Cup players