Cho Won-hee

Cho Won-hee (, ; born 17 April 1983) is a South Korean former professional footballer, who played as a right-back or a defensive midfielder.

Aside of his considerably long playing time with several teams of the K League, he also experienced spells in England, China and Japan.

In his home-country, he's also known as an Internet sensation, as he runs a YouTube channel hosting special training sessions (sometimes in collaboration with fellow footballer and YouTuber Lee Min-a) and covering national and international football, as well as his own experiences as a player.

As a child and approaching the start of his senior career, Cho often played as a forward: for example, while representing South Korea in the U-20 squad, he was also sided as a left winger.

In 2001, after his original plan to join a university club (a practice many Korean footballers do in order to focus on their development) failed, Cho signed with Ulsan Hyundai, one of the most successful clubs in the K League.

After making his professional debut for the Horangi side, in 2003 Cho decided to join the army team Gwangju Sangmu Phoenix on a loan spell, so he could finish his military duty and play more regularly.

After a two-year duty at Gwangju, in 2005 Cho moved from Ulsan to Suwon Samsung Bluewings, becoming in the process one of the several prominent signings that made the team earn the nickname "Real Suwon" during the regular season of that year.

He originally played as a right wing-back or a right full-back at the Big Bird Stadium, competing for a regular spot with Song Chong-gug: however, in 2007, due to a long-term injury of defensive midfielder Kim Nam-il, he switched his position to replace his team-mate.

Throughout that season, he didn't seem to be totally comfortable in his new position and many fans were especially concerned with his rough passing.

Nevertheless, the following season he showed great signs of improvement in his new role and became a first-team regular again, as Suwon experienced one of its best seasons to date, winning both the K League title and the Korean League Cup.

At the end of the year, Cho was also featured in the Best XI of the championship (alongside team-mates Lee Woon-jae, Mato Neretljak and Edu).

He chose to not renew his contract with Suwon, becoming a free agent and starting figuring out an even more ambitious move.

Following impressive performances for both Suwon and the South Korean national team, Cho was linked with several European clubs, including German side Schalke 04 and French side AS Monaco.

Some months later, he sustained a calf injury in an international friendly against Iraq: for this reason, he was supposed to miss the remainder of the season, but eventually managed to fully recover so as to make his Premier League debut for Wigan in the final match of the 2008–09 season, against Stoke City.

Overall, Cho's playing time at the English side was pretty limited, due to his injury and concurrence from other team-mates.

After trialing with the latter team in January 2009, Cho sought another trial with English Premier League side Wigan Athletic, since Monaco had actually all of their non-EU player slots filled.

He impressed during his tests with the Tics and, after being granted a work permit, he was allowed to join Wigan on 6 March 2009, signing a two years, six months-long contract.

Cho initially represented the club's reserve squad, playing his first game in a 2–2 draw against Liverpool, during which he notched an assist.

In order to gain more playing time, Cho agreed to join Suwon Bluewings again, this time on a one-year loan spell, in January 2010.

Nominated as captain of the team, he played twenty times and scored one goal, as the Blue Wings performed well in both national and international cups (they won the Korean FA Cup, reached the semi-finals of the K-League Cup and the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League), but finished seventh in K League.

At the end of his loan, he returned to England and then parted ways with Wigan, after the expiration of his contract: overall, he registered a modest total of five first-team appearances with the Tics, only one of which as a starter and four as a substitute.

On 13 February 2011, Cho joined Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande on a free transfer, which made him the second Korean player to play for the club after Park Ji-ho.

He was the only player to appear in all of the 30 games for Guangzhou during the 2011 season.

Nevertheless, Cho still managed to play his part in the win of two consecutive league titles in 2011 and 2012 with Guangzhou, as well as the national FA Cup and Super Cup in the latter year.

On 30 May 2012, Cho suffered a rib fracture in the Round of 16 of the AFC Champions League, which saw Guangzhou beat Japanese side FC Tokyo 1–0.

Failing to fully recover from that injury, he eventually lost his spot in the team to fellow Korean Kim Young-gwon, who had completed a transfer move in August of the same year.

On 28 November 2012, fellow Chinese club Wuhan Zall officially announced they had signed Cho on a free transfer.

Despite being featured regularly and given the captain armband, the South Korean could not bring substantial help to the team throughout the 2013 season of the Super League, which saw Wuhan heavily struggle in their first top-tier season ever: eventually, the club finished in last place, thus being relegated to China League One after just a year from their promotion.

In February 2014, Cho was loaned to Gyeongnam FC, thus returning to South Korea after four years from his latest experience at the time.

During his brief period of time at Changwon, he featured twelve times, but the club struggled in K League Classic, and then lost the promotion-relegation playoff to Gwangju FC.

On 4 July 2014, Cho moved to Japanese side Omiya Ardija until the end of the season.

However, it proved to be another unlucky experience for him, as he managed to make only four appearances due to fitness issues and could not provide the team with much help, as they finished sixteenth out of eighteen teams in J League 1, failing to stay in the top-tier for just a point: this way, the South Korean got involved in his third relegation in a row in just two years.

On 5 February 2015, Cho approached a new and definitive homecoming, as he accepted an offer from newly established Seoul E-Land, which was set to debut in K League Challenge.

After finally regaining full form, the South Korean took a considerable part in Seoul E-Land's season, as the team finished in fourth place before losing their playoff match to eventual winners Suwon FC, due to ranking rules.

Still, Cho himself and fellow team-mates Kim Jae-sung and Joo Min-kyu were included in the Best XI of that year.

Plus, he set new personal records, as he registered both his highest number of appearances (37) and goals (5) in a single season.

Following his restoring experience in the South Korean capital (which is also his birthplace), at the start of 2016 Cho decided to join Suwon Samsung for the third time in his career: he went on playing for the Blue Wings for almost three years, and even though he ended up featuring increasingly less throughout the time, his contributes helped the team win the Korean FA Cup in 2016 and reach the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League in 2018, between other achievements.

On a side note, this last chapter of his permanence at the club is also remembered for a curious episode of bad luck: at the 89th minute of the seventeenth match of the 2017 season, while playing against Gangwon FC, Cho tried to smother Im Chan-ul's attempt to cross into Suwon's penalty box, but his header curved the ball's trajectory unpredictably and eventually turned into a bizarre own-goal, setting the final score of the game into a 3–3 draw.

The episode is still well-remembered by football fans all across the country, with Cho himself being repeatedly invited to speak and joke on his error.

On 31 March 2019, Cho announced his retirement from professional football through a special ceremony, hold at Suwon World Cup Stadium shortly before an official league match against Incheon United.