Seongnam FC’s promising centre-back Kim Ji-soo has been linked with Napoli following Brentford.
The Italian media ‘Napoli Calcio’ reported on the 21st (Korean time), “Napoli is looking around and thinking about the successor of Kim Min-jae. Seongnam defender Kim Ji-soo in 2004 could be an ideal profile.”
“He looks set to head to Brentford, as reported by ‘The Sun’, but he will not be able to thwart Napoli’s move to move more into Asian football,” he added.
Napoli started looking for a new centre-back after Kalidou Koulibaly left the team last summer. Kim Min-jae received a love call from Napoli and signed a three-year contract. Kim Min-jae immediately became a key player. Kim Min-jae has emerged as a top-class defender in Serie A with solid physicality, quick speed, and judgment. Due to his performance, he contributed to the team’s 33-year scudetto and was praised as a net baggy recruitment.
Kim Min-jae has grown into a top European defender in just one season. If you watch the game, he is a defender, but he stands out, and is loved by fans for his active defense, bold advances, and unsparing defense. In particular, the scene where he stretches out his foot to block Brahim Diaz’s decisive header against AC Milan is still considered a famous scene.
But Napoli’s mistake was decisive. Napoli set a buyout of 48 to 50 million euros (approximately 64.2 to 67 billion won) when Kim Min-jae was recruited. However, given Kim Min-jae’s performance this season, this is a very affordable level. After all, he is receiving love calls from English Premier League (EPL) clubs with abundant capital. He is currently strongly linked with Manchester United and Newcastle United.
In the end, Napoli was put in a situation where it had to recruit Kim Min-jae’s successor. The player who emerged as a new alternative is Kim Ji-soo. Kim Ji-soo was born in 2004 and is a center back with a lot of potential. He stepped on his professional stage by signing a semi-professional contract with Seongnam last year. He was trusted by manager Kim Nam-il to the extent that he played 19 league games last season.
This season, he did not play much for his team after participating in the 2023 FIFA Under-20 (U-20) World Cup in Argentina. Nevertheless, Brentford, who saw his potential as high, paid attention. Brentford showed an active move enough to submit an official proposal.
Being connected to Napoli in these circumstances is encouraging. Of course, it is difficult to be certain that the public confidence is very high because Naples is interested in reports from local newspapers. However, it is the part where you can know the potential of Kim Ji-soo and the eyes of Europe looking at him.안전놀이터
On the other hand, Kim Ji-soo made a significant contribution to defeating France 2-1 in the first leg of Group F of the 2023 FIFA U-20 Argentina World Cup group stage on the 23rd. Currently, Kim Ji-soo is expected to focus on the group stage matches against Honduras on the 26th (Fri) at 6:00 am and Gambia on the 29th (Mon) at 6:00 am.