‘National team defender’ Park Ji-soo (29) has achieved her dream of advancing to the European stage. Portuguese Primera Liga Portimonense revealed five players signed during the winter transfer market through the club’s website, and Park Ji-soo was proudly named. Specific terms of the contract were not disclosed, but according to local media reports, the contract period is said to be 1 year and 6 months, until June next year.
With this, another European center back was born along with Kim Min-jae (27, Naples), who is active in the Italian league.
In the process of Park Ji-soo’s advancement to the Portuguese league, it was also revealed that Bento’s former soccer team coach played a role as a bridge. At the joining press conference, Park Ji-soo said, “I was familiar with (the Portuguese league) because Bento was a Portuguese league player and his nationality is Portugal.” Thank you,” he said.
In the evaluation match held just before the announcement of the final list of the 2022 Qatar World Cup team, Park Ji-soo injured his ankle and was unable to make it to the final ‘Bentuho’. However, former coach Bento, who led the World Cup to the round of 16, helped him advance to Europe. Although he did not participate in the World Cup, it became a ‘congratulatory blessing’ as he was able to step on the stage in Europe. 안전놀이터
Park Ji-soo, who joined Incheon United in the K-League 1 in 2013, was released without playing a single game. After that, he entered the now disbanded 4th Division FC Uijeongbu, and returned to the K-League by joining the 2nd Division Gyeongnam FC in a year. In 2017, he led Gyeongnam’s promotion and was selected as the K-League 2 Best 11. The following year, he took the first division stage with the team, and was selected for the national team with a ‘surprise card’ for the first time that year, even getting aboard the Bentojo.
In 2019, he transferred to Hengda, Guangzhou, China, and the transfer fee alone was about 2 billion won. After returning to the K-League to serve in the military, he played for Suwon FC as a loaner, and after completing his military service at Sangmu, he became a free agent this winter and received attention from many teams. In the meantime, a love call came from Europe, and I ended up joining Portimonense, who was looking for a defender.
Portimonense has a lot of ties to Korean soccer. Lee Seung-woo (25, Suwon FC) briefly served as a loan player, and currently striker Kim Yong-hak of the under-20 soccer team is playing. Park Ji-soo also shared his first impression, saying, “Korean players come and go (to Portimonense) a lot,” and “I looked up the game on YouTube, and the offense and defense switching is very fast.”Portimonense, who are in 12th place out of 18 teams in the Primera Liga this season, are shaky in defense, having conceded 10 goals in their last five matches. Therefore, if Park Ji-soo shows competitiveness, he has a good chance of leaping straight into the starting lineup.