Back in 2019, Juventus signed a young player from North Korea, and everyone thought he might be the next Cristiano Ronaldo. His journey since then has been quite a rollercoaster ride.
Lots of players have been called the 'Next Cristiano Ronaldo' over the years, but none have really lived up to it. Still, they've had decent careers in football.
For Han Kwang-song, it was a bit different. He moved to Italy as a teenager in 2015 as part of a talent program sponsored by the government of North Korea. Han trained with Perugia's academy and later signed with Cagliari.
Once, Liverpool showed interest in him, but Han didn't even know who Steven Gerrard was, which surprised the scout.
Han made his debut for Cagliari at 19, scoring his first goal against Torino, where Joe Hart was in goal.
After failing the competition for a starting spot at Cagliari, Han decided to join Perugia in Serie B on loan. Juventus then noticed him and signed the player in 2019. Although he mainly played for their U23 team, he did make it to the matchday squad once.
Then things got crazy. Juventus sold him to Al-Duhail in Qatar for €7 million just six days after buying him for €3.5 million. Quite a good profit for the Italian club. Han did well in Qatar but had to leave because of politics related to North Korea's nuclear program.
The United Nations introduced sanctions which prevented North Korean citizens from working abroad in March 2021.
The United Nations said moving him from Juventus to Al-Duhail broke international rules. So, his deal with the Qatari team got cancelled. Han got sent out of Qatar and was supposed to fly to Rome. But North Korea shut its borders due to COVID-19, so no planes could come or go.
This ended up with Han getting stuck in an embassy for a few years. Han can't talk to the media, so we probably won't ever know exactly what happened.
Now 25, Han played his first pro game in three years last November. He scored in North Korea's World Cup match against Myanmar. He's not on any team yet, so we'll see if he plays in North Korea's next game with Japan.
