Cho Gue-sung is reported to have decided against a January move to Europe.
The striker caught the eye during the World Cup Finals when he scored twice for South Korea against Ghana and has been extensively linked with a move to Celtic.
Over the last week there has been claims of negotiations being held in London between Celtic and Park Ji-sung of Jeonbuk Hyundai but over the last two days it seemed increasingly unlikely that a deal would be completed.
Cho is currently in Korea preparing for the new K-League season with Sports Donga claiming that there will be no transfer deal this month:
World Cup hero’ Cho Kyu-seong (25, Jeonbuk Hyundai), who has been seeking to advance to Europe, has decided to stay.
A K-League source said on the 14th, “Cho Kyu-sung has decided to stay in Jeonbuk. I know he made up his mind ahead of the weekend. For now, it seems that there will be no transfers this winter unless there are decisive variables such as big European leagues and large proposals from big clubs.”
The report adds:
Cho Kyu-seong, who had excluded Minnesota, a non-European region, from his list of possible destinations early on, was most attracted to Mainz, which started a full-fledged scouting competition starting from Christmas last year. Conditions were also good. Mainz set a basic transfer fee of 3.3 million euros (approximately 4.1 billion won), which is higher than the originally announced 3 million euros (approximately 4.03 billion won), and 50% sell-on (a portion of the transfer fee that occurs when re-transferring) put up
Celtic, which showed interest in Cho Kyu-sung almost at the same time as Mainz, made a similar offer. According to foreign media, the transfer fee was 3 million euros and 50% cell-on was charged. However, there was a crucial difference. In addition to Cho Kyu-sung, Celtic also contacted multiple candidates. Oh Hyun-gyu (22, Suwon Samsung), who accompanied the Qatar World Cup as a preliminary entry for ‘Bentuho’, is one of them, and it is known that a ransom of about 2.5 million euros (about 3.35 billion won) was set. On the other hand, Mainz coach Bo Svensson was active enough to directly contact Cho Kyu-sung.
The Cho story seemed to be running in tandem with Giorgos Giakoumakis leaving Celtic with Sampdoria and Urawa Red Diamonds the clubs most interested.
With just over a fortnight to go in the transfer window there is time for further developments but if Ange Postecoglou can’t bring in a new striker it would be a surprise if Giakoumakis is allowed to leave.
If this guy doesn’t want to come, that’s fine, but let’s move on to one of the other targets Ange no doubt has in reserve. We had this situation with that Riley McCree(?) guy this time last year and ended up signing O’Riley instead. That wasn’t a bad bit of business. Or just give the tried and tested Giakoumakis an improved contract. He’s probably done enough to merit one.