South Korean footballer Kim Bo-kyung said Wednesday he was “happy” to have realized his goal of reaching the English Premier League, after his second-division club earned promotion to the top-flight competition.
Earlier in the day, Cardiff City in the Football League Championship, the second-tier English league, secured a spot in next year’s Premier League, following a 0-0 draw with Charlton Athletic. Each season, the top two teams from the Football League Championship, plus a winner of the promotion playoffs, trade places with the three worst clubs from the Premier League.
The latest result put Cardiff City at 25 wins, nine losses and nine draws. With three games remaining, Cardiff City will finish no worse than second place. It will make Kim, who played the entire game against Charlton Athletic, the 12th South Korean to reach the Premier League.
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Cardiff City’s Kim Bo-kyung of Korea celebrates his team gaining promotion to the Premier League after the Football League Championship match against Charlton at the Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, Tuesday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
Founded in 1899, the club will compete in the first division for the first time.
“I am pleased to have been a part of such a historic occasion for this team,” Kim said in a phone interview with “news Y,” Yonhap News Agency’s all-news cable channel. “I am also happy to have accomplished my goal of getting promoted to the first division.”
Kim signed a three-year deal with Cardiff City last July. He has scored twice so far this season.
The crafty midfielder drew interest from other top European clubs, and Park Ji-sung, the first South Korean to play in the Premier League, once anointed the promising 23-year-old as his heir apparent in midfield for the national team.
At the time of his signing, Kim had said he wanted to gain more playing experience in the second division and take it step by step.
On Wednesday, Kim said he is fully aware of the difficult road ahead.
“There’s an obvious difference in the quality of play between the Premier League and the League Championship,” he said. “I realize I have to work even harder ahead of fresh challenges.
Staying in the Premier League is as difficult as earning the promotion. My goal is to help keep the team in the first division next year.”
Currently, two South Koreans are playing in the top competition. Ki Sung-yueng mans the midfield for Swansea City, which is in 10th place among 20 teams with six matches left, safely out of the relegation zone.
Park Ji-sung, a one-time captain with the lowly Queens Park Rangers, could find himself in the second division next season. QPR, in 19th place, has just 24 points with five games left, 10 points behind the 17th-place Aston Villa.
Park, unless he moves to another club, could join another South Korean in the second-tier competition, Lee Chung-yong of Bolton Wanderers.
Bolton is currently in seventh place. Teams ranked from third to sixth at the end of the season will compete in the playoffs for one last berth in the Premier League. Bolton trails sixth-ranked Leicester City by one point, and both clubs have three matches left. (Yonhap News)
