Local media reported that German professional soccer Mainz, which was reported to have jumped into the recruitment match for national soccer striker Cho Kyu-seong (25, Jeonbuk), who played an active part in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, was interested in financial issues.
German football magazine Kicker reported on the 8th (Korean time) that "Mainz was clearly interested in signing Cho Kyu-sung, but after investigating the conditions related to the funding, this interest quickly cooled."
After scoring two goals at the Qatar World Cup and helping Korea advance to the round of 16, the possibility of a transfer to a European club is being raised.
Celtic, a prestigious Scottish club, was mentioned as a candidate for the destination, and on the 7th, the Evening Standard, a British newspaper, said, "Mainz is ahead of Celtic and American teams," and his possibility of advancing to Germany has risen rapidly.
Mainz is a team where Cho Kyu-seong and national team Lee Jae-seong (31), who participated in the Qatar World Cup together, belonged to, and Koo Ja-cheol (Jeju) and Ji Dong-won (Seoul) also played for this team in the past.
Mainz, currently 10th in the Bundesliga (19 points), are known to want to strengthen their attack in the winter transfer window as they have only scored 19 goals in 15 league games this season.
In the midst of this, the transfer rumor of Cho Kyu-sung was raised and Lee Jae-sung raised expectations for the birth of a 'Korean duo', but it seems that it did not lead to the conclusion due to the issue of the transfer fee.
As of December of last year, Transfermarkt, a European football media outlet, estimated Cho Kyu-sung's transfer fee at 2.5 million euros (approximately 3.35 billion won).
In a report by the Evening Standard the previous day, it was mentioned that Jeonbuk allowed Cho Kyu-sung to move to Europe for 2.5 million pounds (approximately 3.9 billion won).
(Photo = Yonhap News)