Cho Gue-sung: The World Cup’s New Crush

Soccer fans have found their new heartthrob to swoon over. Known as “Player No. 9,” Korean soccer player Cho Gue-sung has been going viral due to his good looks while playing in this year’s FIFA World Cup.

Cho Gue-sung played in his first World Cup this year on Korea’s national team and started gaining attention in their game against Ghana. During the match, Cho scored two goals in a mere three minutes. This was the first time a South Korean has scored two goals in a World Cup game. Though Korea lost that game, World Cup viewers had their eyes all over the rising star: and his attractiveness. As of December 19, #choguesung on Tik Tok has 686.8 million views. He also had an exponential growth of followers on his Instagram account. Before the World Cup, Cho had 20,00 followers. That has quickly become 2.8 million with only seven posts. 

After discovering their new celebrity crush, people actively sent Cho Gue-sung love letters and marriage proposals, which resulted in the soccer player having to turn off his cell phone. South Korean journalist Seo Jung-hwan said, “His phone was going all night. It was keeping him awake. He was trying to concentrate on football and, all the time, the messages were coming” (The Athletic). Vanessa Moscozo (9) mentioned, “Social media influences people and lets them communicate with people they don’t know.”

Shortly after Cho’s viral success, fans were already deep diving into his personal life and starting rumors about his dating life. The stories reached a point where model Ji Min-joo’s management label had to release a statement denying the relationship between the two. 

As December starts to end and we start reflecting on what and who stood out this year, Vogue Korea has chosen to highlight celebrities who have made an impact in 2022: Cho Gue-sung was a part of the line-up including the five celebrities chosen. He is the fifth male cover model featured in Vogue Korea. As this was also his first magazine cover, fans are pleasantly surprised that it was for Vogue.

Going viral on the internet has its good and bad parts, but for Player No. 9, it has given him further success as an athlete. As the 2022 FIFA World Cup comes to a close, it will be known that Cho Gue-sung was one of the most popular players in this worldwide soccer competition.