Sport

South Korea's Cho Gue-sung sees followers surge after being dubbed 'World Cup's sexiest player'

South Korea's Cho Gue-sung sees followers surge after being dubbed 'World Cup's sexiest player'
FILE: South Korea's Paulo Bento stands down after World Cup exit to ā€¦
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South Korean footballer Cho Gue-sung has become a hero for his country and in the hearts of his admirers around the globe.

Although South Korea exited the World Cup on Monday, following a 4-1 defeat at the hands of tournament favourites, his two goals during Korea's 3-2 loss to Ghana in the group stages significantly helped raise his profile and his social media followers.

Before the 24-year-old hit the World Cup stage, his Instagram following was around 20,000.

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Now, his following has skyrocketed to 2.5 million, and his photos have comments from many fans who expressed their love for him.

According to The Athletic, Cho even reportedly had to turn his phone off because he was being bombarded by too many messages from fans.

ā€œHe had to get some rest. His phone was going all night. It was keeping him awake,ā€ a South Korean journalist told the outlet.

And being dubbed ā€œThe World Cupā€™s sexiest player,ā€ Choā€™s social media following will still rise as fans look for more snaps of the star.

Several videos and photos of Cho running, sitting, playing football, or blinking has people on social media falling in love.

One video on Twitter, which has 9 million views, shows the footballer sitting down and blinking.

ā€œIf you have a crush on Cho Gue- sung, this is for you,ā€ the videoā€™s caption reads.

Itā€™s safe to say that his club sid Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors caught wind of all the positive reception Cho got, as they shared their own videos to the teamā€™s official TikTok.

One video showed Cho cooking a meal, which made viewers offer praise not only to the star but to the teamā€™s social media team.

@jeonbuk_1994

POV: This man is cooking for me as soon as I wake up. #ģ”°ź·œģ„± #choguesung #worldcup #worldcup2022 #korea #no9 #ģ›”ė“œģ»µ #ģ „ė¶ķ˜„ėŒ€ #Jeonbuk #no10 #ģ”°ź·œģ„±ģ”Ø #ģ–¼źµ“ģ—“ģ¼ģ¤‘ #Kė¦¬ź·ø #ģ „ė¶ķ˜„ėŒ€ #ģ”°ź·œģ„±ė³“ģœ ķ“ėŸ½ #ģ—“ģ¼ķ•˜ėŠ”ģ“ėŖ©źµ¬ė¹„

YALLS SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER KNOWS HAHAHAHAHAHA,ā€ one person wrote.

ā€œNOT THEM FEEDING THE DELUSIONS,ā€ another joked.

Elsewhere, Cho's two goals against Ghana made history, as he became the first South Korean footballer to score two or more goals in a single World Cup match.

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