Korea's sole Premier League defender is a 19-year-old. Who is Kim Ji-soo?

Football

Published: 13 Jun. 2024, 15:56

Korea's sole Premier League defender is a 19-year-old. Who is Kim Ji-soo?

Kim Ji-soo, then a defender for Seongnam FC, poses for a photo after earning a spot on the Team K League roster for an exhibition game against the Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur in 2022. [K LEAGUE/YONHAP]

Brentford defender Kim Ji-soo, 19, is poised to join Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan in England’s top flight for the 2024-25 season after earning promotion to the club’s first team last week.

The west London club last July signed Kim, then 18 years old, to its B team from K League 2 side Seongnam FC ahead of the 2023-24 season following a standout performance at the U-20 World Cup.

The move made Kim the youngest Korean footballer to join a Premier League club and placed him in an elite group of Korean export players in Europe’s Big Five: England’s Premier League, Germany’s Bundesliga, Spain’s La Liga, France’s Ligue 1 and Italy’s Serie A. Although he is yet to make his Premier League debut, he did spend eight games last season warming the Brentford bench.

While Korea has produced a guard of star strikers like Spurs’ Son and Wolves’ Hwang, who were the top scorers for their clubs in the 2023-24 season, and shrewd playmakers like former Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung, standout defenders have been far rarer.

Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min greets Team K League's Kim Ji-soo and goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang after the exhibition game at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on July 13, 2022. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Kim will be the first player from Korea to take a regular spot on a Premier League club’s back line in a decade after Yun Suk-young, who spent one season in the Premier League with now-Championship side Queens Park Rangers. The only player since Yun to spend much time roaming back was Ki Sung-yueng, who occasionally took a more defensive role for Swansea City.

Kim will also join a lineage of Korean defenders including former Spurs defender Lee Young-pyo and former West Brom defender Kim Do-heon — both of whom left the Premier League in the late 2000s.

So who is Kim Ji-soo, where does he come from and what has he done?

Semi-pro at 17

Kim came up through the Seongnam FC youth academy — which also produced loaned-out Nottingham Forrest striker Hwang Ui-jo — and represented Korea on junior-level national teams, making his U-15 debut at 14 years old in April 2019.

He signed with Seongnam ahead of the 2022 K League 1 season, joining the team at 17 years old. He was the first player to join the club on a semi-professional contract after the K League in 2018 lowered the age limit from 18 to 17 years old.

Kim Ji-soo, center, is training at a Team K League public training session a day before the Coupang Play Series match against Tottenham Hotspur at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on July 7, 2022. [K LEAGUE/NEWS1]

Kim made 19 appearances for Seongnam in 2022, starting as a center-back in every one of those games and recording one assist in a 3-2 loss to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. He played the full 90 minutes in all but four appearances for the club but didn’t see through the end of the season, injuring his ankle that September. He was bumped up to a full professional contract at Seongnam in October but the club failed to avoid relegation after finishing the season in last place, sending Kim, albeit briefly, to the K League 2 for 2023 before his transfer to Brentford in July.

He played just two games for Seongnam during the 2023 K League 2 season, once in the league and once in the Korean FA Cup.

Links to Big Five

Before Brentford, the Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich, now home to defender Kim Min-jae, reportedly expressed interest in bringing the then-18-year-old defender to Germany.

Reports of a link between Bayern and Kim Ji-soo came months before the German club finalized its deal to bring Kim Min-jae over from Serie A’s Napoli.

Kim Ji-soo, center, vies for the ball in a match against Ecuador in the round of 16 of the U-20 FIFA World Cup at Santiago del Estero Stadium in Argentina on June 1, 2023. [YONHAP]

The younger Kim was often compared to the elder defender, including by former Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors manager Kim Sang-sik, who coached Kim Ji-soo on an all-star K League team in 2022 in an exhibition game against Spurs.

Kim Ji-soo came off the bench in the second half, playing the rest of the match against Spurs, who won 6-3.

Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon was also reportedly scouting Kim Ji-soo that spring after the defender’s performance at the U-20 Asian Cup in March, before the Korean squad kept their momentum for the U-20 World Cup in June.

U-20 run

Kim made four appearances for Korea at the U-20 AFC Asian Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan last March and started as a center-back in three of those matches.

He came on in the 105th minute during Korea’s quarterfinal match against China when Korea scored twice in extra time to win 3-1. Kim and the defenders allowed China zero goals to knock them out of the tournament and advance to the semifinals.

The Korean U-20 national team, led by manager Kim Eun-joong, beat China 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on March 12, 2023. [KFA/YONHAP]

Korea lost their semifinal match against Uzbekistan 3-1 on penalties when Kim took the final shot, which was saved by Uzbekistan goalkeeper Otabek Boymurodov, sending Korea home and Uzbekistan to the finals and the trophy.

Kim started every match for Korea at the U-20 World Cup two months later, again anchoring the team’s defense as its center-back, seeing the team through an unbeaten run until the semifinals.

Kim Ji-soo, second from left, and the rest of the U-20 Korean national football team celebrate after beating Ecuador 3-2 at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup at Santiago del Estero Stadium in Argentina on June 1, 2023. [YONHAP]

Brentford praised Kim for his performance, finalizing his deal following Korea’s fourth-place finish at the tournament.

“Ji-soo is an excellent prospect who was in demand from many teams in Europe this summer,” Brentford Director of Football Phil Giles said in a statement announcing Kim’s signing last July. “He performed very well at the U20 World Cup recently so it’s a great credit to [Brentford Technical Director] Lee Dykes and the recruitment team that we managed to sign him.”

Another standout from the 2023 U-20 squad was Stoke City striker Bae Jun-ho, 20, who made a name for himself at the Championship club in the 2023-24 season following his transfer from Daejeon Hana Citizen last August.

Bae got his first call for senior team duty this month in Korea’s June 6 World Cup qualifier against Singapore, scoring his debut goal nine minutes after coming onto the pitch.

Kim was called up to the senior team for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in January but remained on the bench.

Lee Kang-in, front, and Kim Ji-soo train ahead a match against Bahrain at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup at the Al Egla Training Center in Doha, Qatar on Jan. 11. [NEWS1]

He also sat out the U-23 AFC Asian Cup, which did not fall during a FIFA international break, at Brentford's request. Korea failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kim, who turned 19 last December, will be required to complete mandatory military service unless he earns an exemption with a gold medal at the Asian Games or any medal at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, if Korea qualify.

What has he done at Brentford?

Kim made 29 appearances and scored one goal for Brentford’s B team in his first season abroad, according to the club.

He played alongside Romeo Beckham, David Beckham’s son, who is set to continue training with the B-team.

Kim is “an assured but quiet individual who displays confidence on the pitch through his ability to play out from the back under pressure, whilst also comfortably travelling with the ball through midfield,” the club said in a statement about Kim’s promotion to the first team.

Kim “suffered some setbacks” during his season with the B team; “injuries have played their part and he has missed some big games,” the club said, but added that Kim remains confident he can step up.

"I am also working hard to get myself in the best possible physical shape as I know the Premier League is a tougher physical test and I want to be ready for that,” Kim said in comments shared by Brentford online. "Injuries are a part of the game and it has been annoying at times to get them but I have always aimed to come back stronger and better."

Brentford narrowly avoided relegation to the Championship, finishing the 2023-24 Premier League season in 16th place on the 20-team table.

They were promoted in 2021 under manager Thomas Frank, who has led the club since 2018.

Brentford will play Portuguese side Benfica in a pre-season friendly in Portugal on July 25, the club announced earlier this week.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]