Following Kim Min-jae (27, Naples), a new European big league defender is expected to be born. The main character is center back Kim Ji-soo (19, Seongnam FC), born in 2004, and the stage is the English Premier League (EPL).
In a phone call with this magazine on the 16th, the Seongnam club said, “We received an official letter from the EPL Brentford club regarding the transfer of Kim Ji-soo. The transfer fee is an amount that meets the buyout (amount allowed for transfer) included in the Kim Ji-soo contract,” he said.
According to the club, Brentford proposed with a sell-on clause added to $700,000 (about 1 billion won), equivalent to a buyout. Cell-on is a clause that distributes a certain percentage of the transfer fee that occurs when Kim Ji-soo transfers from Brentford to another club in the future with the Seongnam club. As much as the buyout amount was proposed, Brentford’s offer cannot be rejected at the club level.
If Kim Ji-soo’s transfer to Brentford is confirmed without incident this summer, it will be the 16th Korean player ever to sign a contract with an EPL club and the 7th case to go directly from the K-League to the EPL. It is the second time for a teenage player to enter the EPL after Jeong Sang-bin (Minnesota United). However, Jung Sang-bin moved from Suwon Samsung to Wolverhampton and immediately leased to Grass Hopper (Switzerland) and moved to Minnesota (USA), so he could not play in the EPL game. If Kim Ji-soo transfers to Brentford and plays until the game, he will become the first teenage Korean player to play on the EPL stage.
Kim Ji-soo, who has a physique of 1m92 cm and 73 kg, has passed through the national team by age, but has no experience with the A national team yet. In his second year as a professional, his K-League career record is only 20 games. That is why it is more meaningful that Brentford, the 9th place in the EPL, made a direct recruitment offer. It is interpreted that he highly evaluated Kim Ji-soo’s potential.
In fact, Kim Ji-soo was a promising player who signed the first semi-professional contract with his club during Poongsaeng High School, a Seongnam U-18 team. Last year, at the age of 17 years, 4 months and 20 days, he set the record for the youngest ever debut in the K-League 1, drawing attention as a next-generation defender who will lead Korean soccer. The modifier, the second Kim Min-jae, also naturally followed. Europe has begun to pay attention to this talent, and Brentford are the first to offer a transfer.
Also last year, he participated in a friendly match against Tottenham as a member of the K-League and faced world-class players such as Son Heung-min and Harry Kane. Although he allowed an excuse for conceding due to a decisive mistake, Son Heung-min directly encouraged Kim Ji-soo and praised him after the game, making it a hot topic.
Brentford is not the only European club interested in signing Kim Ji-soo. It is said that the world’s biggest clubs Bayern Munich (Germany) and Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), which have been constantly rumored to be transferred, are also keeping an eye on him. The British Daily Mail introduced, “Kim Ji-soo, whom Brentford started discussing a transfer with, is receiving high evaluations throughout Europe, such as constantly scouting Bayern Munich and Lisbon.”안전놀이터
Kim Ji-soo is currently leaving Korea to participate in the FIFA Under-20 (U-20) World Cup, so the transfer discussion will begin in earnest after the tournament is over and he returns to Korea. There is a prospect that the work visa (work permit) problem required for EPL transfer can be solved with a recommendation letter from former national soccer team coach Paulo Bento (Portugal).