Minnesota United are reported to be putting together a $5m (£4.1m) offer to sign Cho Gue-sung from Jeonbuk Hyundi.
The striker was first linked with Celtic during the World Cup group stage matches in November but unlike other January deals this one seems to moving at snails pace with new clubs being linked on an almost daily basis. A fee of around £3m has been mentioned.
At the weekend Mainz 05 were reported to be close to concluding a deal, on Monday Michael Beale was showing interest with MLS side Minnesota United now involved.
It seems that a move for Gue-sung is tied in with the transfer of Giorgos Giakoumakis who has been linked with Sampdoria and Urawa Red Diamonds.
In the early hours of Tuesday Korean site Sports Chosun reports:
Recruitment proposals for Cho Kyu-seong (25, Jeonbuk) are arriving in Jeonju one after another. In addition to the two clubs in Europe known to the world through local media, Celtic in Scotland and Mainz in Germany, Minnesota United in the United States are actively courting him.
An official in the transfer market said on the 10th, “Minnesota is putting its life and death on the recruitment of Cho Kyu-sung. I know that the manager (Adrian Heath), who was an Everton legend, asked the club to bring Cho Kyu-sung unconditionally. I gave you an unconventional offer to get it.”
According to this official, Minnesota verbally presented Jeonbuk with a transfer fee of ‘5 million dollars (about 6.2 billion won) + a (a condition that Jeonbuk receives a certain percentage of the amount when transferring to another team)’ over the weekend. It is a condition that is higher than the offer presented last month, far exceeding the level of 3 million pounds (approximately 4.5 billion won) set by Celtic and Mainz. If ‘+a’, a kind of ‘Sell-on’, is met, it is close to the amount requested by Jeonbuk.
Minnesota’s carrot is not just high transfer fees. The Minnesota team promised to issue a green card to Cho Kyu-sung. A green card refers to a card that guarantees permanent residence and employment in the United States. Here, he offered a higher salary than Europe and promised to actively support his advancement into Europe.
Minnesota ranked 6th and 11th overall in the American Professional Football (MLS) Western League in the 2022 season. Performance fell compared to the 2020 season and 2021 season, which took 4th and 5th place in the Western League, respectively. No striker has ever scored in double digits. Paraguay national team Luis Amalia scored 9 goals.
This is the background for Heath, who played an active role as a striker in Everton and Man City in the 1980s and 1990s, in search of a ‘sure killer’ during the winter break. Coach Heath was fascinated by Cho Kyu-seong, who won the top scorer in the K-League 1 last season and scored the first Korean multi-goal against Ghana in the 2022 Qatar World Cup. It is said that he plans to use it as the main striker in the MLS 2023 season, which opens at the end of February.
Celtic’s interest in Yuki Kobayashi, Alistair Johnston and Tomoki Iwata were concluded within a week with contracts being signed for the players, Kobayashi and Johnston had trained for more than a fortnight before their deals were rubber stamped on January 1.
Go and sign the boy from Rosenberg. Would cost a bit more but his record is fantatic and he is reputedly interested. Don’t enter a bidding war. Unless you are the seller.