South Korea ‘heart-throb’ Cho Gue-sung has to turn his phone OFF at the World Cup

Cho Gue-sung has been forced to turn off his phone after winning thousands of new fans at the World Cup.

The South Korean striker, who scored twice in his country’s loss to Ghana earlier this week, has seen his number of followers on the social media platform Instagram skyrocket, from 20,000 at the start of the tournament to 1, 6 million at the time of writing this article.

A brief search for him on social media reveals dozens, perhaps hundreds, of fan pages devoted to the handsome South Korean center forward.

The South Korean center forward has accumulated more than a million followers since the World Cup began.

The video of the South Korean international sitting on the bench of his club accumulates more than seven million views

As reported by the athletica journalist from Cho’s home country revealed that he had to “get some rest” and part with his phone and thus the thousands of messages he received every hour.

“I had to get some rest,” Seo Jung-hwan said. ‘Her phone of hers was ringing all night. She was keeping him awake. He was trying to concentrate on soccer, and all the time, the messages were coming through.

The ChoGuesung hashtag on TikTok, a major factor in popularity even in the sports world, has 193 million views.

The center forward has been one of South Korea’s biggest stars in the tournament so far, scoring twice against Ghana to bring his country back to level before they conceded a third.

Cho Gue-sung’s goals against Ghana are South Korea’s only efforts so far

Surpassing national hero Son Heung-min, Cho now appears to be the darling of the South Korean general public.

Encouraging, perhaps, to her many fans, reports that she had started dating Ji Minju were denied by her modeling agency, LSAC. “They’re not dating,” her brief statement read. We ask that you refrain from excessive speculation.

“Sisters with one hand on heart, Korea’s ninth: Cho Gue-sung,” wrote a huge fan on social media.

Another implored the footballer to marry them. While another captioned a video of the player with ‘the man who made everyone fall in love with himself’.

A seemingly innocuous clip of the striker sitting on the bench at his club, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, has garnered more than seven million views. The part where the striker rubs his cheek seems to have drawn particular attention.

The Athletic noted the idol status that South Korean fans are known to bestow on their stars, with author Devon Rowcliffe referencing the attention paid to 2002 hero Kim Nam-il.

“South Korean fans have been known to bestow superstar status on their footballers,” the author of Who Ate All the Squid? Football Adventures in South Korea told the publication.

‘After the 2002 World Cup mania, midfielder Kim Nam-il became a sex symbol overnight. Female fans held banners at games with risqué euphemisms, offering marriage proposals or less formal hookups.

He seems to have overtaken his teammate Son Heung-min as the favorite of the South Korean crowd.

In the digital age, Cho apparently has more opportunities than his predecessors on the national team to potentially monetize and capitalize on the attention he gets.

With the advent of social media, opportunities are now more widespread and Cho is likely to have a number of offers in his mailbox when he returns home from Qatar, likely soon given South Korea’s place in his group.

They face Portugal with a bet on reaching the round of 16: they will have to beat Portugal and improve on Uruguay’s result while hoping Ghana doesn’t win.