Ki Sung-Yeung |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ki Sung-Yeung | ||
| Date of birth | 24 January 1989 | ||
| Place of birth | Gwangju, South Korea | ||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Central midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Celtic | ||
| Number | 18 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 2001–2006 | John Paul College | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2007–2009 | Seoul | 64 | (7) |
| 2009– | Celtic | 56 | (8) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2005–2006 | South Korea U-17 | 6 | (3) |
| 2006–2007 | South Korea U-20 | 16 | (2) |
| 2007–2008 | South Korea U-23 | 13 | (0) |
| 2008– | South Korea | 44 | (5) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 January 2012. † Appearances (Goals). |
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| Ki Sung-Yueng | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 기성용 |
| Hanja | 奇誠庸[1] |
| Revised Romanization | Gi Seong-yong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Ki Sŏng'yong |
Ki Sung-Yeung (Korean: 기성용) (born 24 January 1989), also known as Ki Sung-Yong, is a South Korean professional footballer who currently plays as a central midfielder for Scottish Premier League club Celtic and the South Korea national team.
Known for his vision, technique, long range passing and shooting, along with his good set-pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the top young South Korean football prospects.
His playing style has earned him the title of the "Korean Gerrard". On 22 September 2009, he received a Sky Sports Scout Rating of 62/80.[2]
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In 2001, Ki was sent to Australia by his father, who believed that Ki could play football and learn to speak English.[3] He played the bulk of his youth career at John Paul College in Brisbane under the BSP (Brain Soccer Program) overseen by Jeff Hopkins. He was part of the team that won the U-15 Nationals (Bill Turner Cup) for John Paul College in 2004. Ki received offers in 2005 from Korean club FC Seoul and also A-League club Brisbane Roar, but decided to move back to South Korea to continue his career. Since then, Ki has been a fluent English speaker. He went by his English name David in Australia.[4]
Ki returned to Korea and joined the reserve team of FC Seoul where he played alongside national teammate Lee Chung-Yong. Under Şenol Güneş, he made his senior debut in 2007.
During the 2008 season, Ki reinforced his position as a key player of FC Seoul. On 29 October, Ki scored the winning goal against Seoul's biggest rival Suwon Samsung Bluewings in 92nd minute. Ki performed a "Kangaroo Ceremony", which he claims to be imitation of Emmanuel Adebayor's, but Suwon fans argue that this was imitation of 'chicken', which is how many Seoul fans call Suwon. He led the team to an unprecedented K-League runners-up position with 4 goals and 1 assist in 21 appearances.
In FC Seoul's first K-League match of the 2009 season, Ki scored one goal in the 6–1 drubbing of Chunnam Dragons. There was increasing speculation regarding a big move abroad with suitors including PSV Eindhoven, Hamburg SV and Porto among others.[5]
On 25 August 2009, it was revealed that contact between Celtic and FC Seoul had occurred regarding the possibility of Ki's transfer to the Parkhead club. However, the player's agent stated that an immediate move would be unlikely given FC Seoul's success in the league and the Asian Champions League. Three days later, Celtic clinched a £2.1m transfer for Ki. He linked up with the Parkhead side in the January transfer window at the end of the K-League season. The signing was confirmed on 13 December 2009 after Ki passed a medical and secured a work permit. He reportedly turned down an offer from English Premier League club Portsmouth. He wears the number 18 with "Ki" on his shirt. He made his debut for Celtic in a 1–1 draw against Falkirk at Celtic Park on 16 January 2010, winning the Man of the Match award from the official Celtic website.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
He scored his first competitive goal for Celtic with a shot from 25 yards in a 4–0 victory against St. Mirren in the Scottish Premier League (SPL). Ki was voted the SPL Young Player of the Month for October 2010. He became a first team regular and scored his second goal of the season in a 2–2 draw with Inverness Thistle at Celtic Park. On 26 December 2010, Ki scored against St Johnstone in a 2–0 victory in the SPL. On 21 May 2011, Ki scored the first goal of Celtic's Scottish Cup Final win against Motherwell with a left-footed strike from around 35 yards. He also won the official Man of the Match award.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
Ki started the 2011–12 campaign in Celtic's opening game against Hibernian in the SPL. Scoring the second goal in a 2–0 victory, a 25-yard left foot strike into the right hand bottom corner and also won the Man of the Match award from the official Celtic website. He impressed Celtic manager Neil Lennon so much in the Hibernian game that he said:[19]
| “ | He's a very important player to us. I rate him very highly. He can go on to be anything he wants to be," Lennon told The Telegraph. "We think he is a class player and we're glad he's here." He added: “Ki has been very consistent over the past 18 months. He's developing nicely into a class player. "He had good presence and good composure on the ball. He has a goal or two in him and his passing range is excellent." | ” |
Ki then went on to score another goal in the Scottish Premier League against Dundee United at Celtic Park, a strike into the top left hand corner from the edge of the box. On 15 August 2011 it was reported that Premiership sides Blackburn Rovers, Tottenham Hotspur and several clubs from the Russian Premier League were interested in signing Ki. Celtic the next day issued a hands off warning to the interested clubs, saying that it would take a bid of significant proportions for Celtic to allow the increasingly important midfielder to leave the club. [20] On 10 September 2011, Ki put Motherwell to the sword yet again, this time in the Scottish Premier League with a superb strike from outside the box with his right foot. Celtic went on to win the game 4-0. On 29 September, he started in Celtic's 1-1 draw with Italian side Udinese. After 3 minutes Celtic won a penalty which Ki converted.[21] On 18 December 2011, he scored the second goal of the game as Celtic beat St Johnstone 2-0 at McDiarmid Park in the Scottish Premier League.
On the international stage, Ki has played in the 2007 U-20 World Cup and for the South Korea national team as well as the South Korea U-23 team.[22]
On 7 June 2008, he made his international debut in a 2010 World Cup qualification match against Jordan.[22]
On 1 June 2010 Ki was picked in the 23 man South Korea squad.[23] On 12 June Ki played in South Korea's first game of the 2010 World Cup against Greece.[24] Ki played a part in all 3 group games and assisted twice in 2 different matches against Greece and Nigeria which helped him and his country get through to the knock-out stages of the competition.[24]
On 25 January 2011, during the 2011 AFC Asian Cup semi-final match between Japan and South Korea, Ki scored the opening goal through a penalty kick.[25] Ki created controversy with his goal celebration by pulling a monkey face and scratching his cheek in front of a pitch-side camera in an allegedly racist slur at Japanese people.[26] Ki initially defended his goal celebration through a Twitter post claiming that he was annoyed at having seen a Rising Sun Flag in the stadium.[27] Ki then claimed that the celebration was a reference to alleged racist abuse he had received during Scottish Premier League games from opposition fans, but the chief executive of Show Racism the Red Card expressed scepticism about this.[27] Asian Cup tournament director Tokuaki Suzuki said that no action will be taken on part of the AFC and that FIFA has not contacted the AFC regarding the matter.[26]
On 20 December, 2011, Ki Sung-Yueng (along with Ji So-yun of Kobe INAC Japan) won the South Korean Player of the Year award. The decision was announced by the Korean Football Association (KFA) based on his international and club performance in the Scottish Premier League.[28]
| Goal | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 September 2008 | Hongkou Stadium, Shanghai | North Korea | 1 – 1 | 1–1 | 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers |
| 2 | 11 October 2008 | Suwon World Cup Stadium, Suwon | Uzbekistan | 1 – 0 | 3–0 | Friendly International |
| 3 | 6 June 2009 | Al-Maktoum Stadium, Dubai | United Arab Emirates | 2 – 0 | 2–0 | 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers |
| 4 | 14 October 2009 | Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul | Senegal | 1 – 0 | 2–0 | Friendly International |
| 5 | 25 January 2011 | Al-Gharafa Stadium, Doha | Japan | 1 – 0 | 2–2 | 2011 AFC Asian Cup |
| Club | Season | League | Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| FC Seoul | |||||||||||
| 2007 | 16 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | - | 25 | 0 | ||
| 2008 | 21 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | - | 28 | 4 | ||
| 2009 | 27 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 39 | 5 | |
| Total | 64 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 92 | 9 | |
| Celtic | |||||||||||
| 2009–10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |
| 2010–11 | 26 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 34 | 4 | |
| 2011–12 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 28 | 6 | |
| Total | 56 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 72 | 10 | |
| Career Total | 120 | 15 | 9 | 1 | 20 | 1 | 15 | 2 | 164 | 19 | |
FC Seoul
Celtic
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