Cho So-hyun (, ; born 24 June 1988) is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Women's Championship club

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

and the South Korea women's national team. She is widely regarded as one of South Korea's finest players, and is their second most-capped international player with 156 appearances. Cho was the number 1 pick in the 2009 WK-League draft, signing for Suwon FMC. She has won multiple domestic league titles and was named Korean Women's Player of the Year in 2015.

Club career

Hyundai Steel Red Angels

On 20 November 2017, Cho scored twice in a 3–0 win over Hwacheon KSPO in the second leg of the WK League final. She finished the 2017 season with three goals and two assists in 27 appearances and won her fourth league title.

Loan to INAC Kobe Leonessa

On 29 January 2016, Cho joined

INAC Kobe Leonessa INAC Kobe(INAC神戸レオネッサ, Ainakku-Kōbe Reonessa) is a professional Japanese women's soccer, football club from Kobe, founded in 2001. INAC stands for International Athletic Club, while Leonessa means Lioness in Italian language, Ita ...

on loan and was given the number 16 shirt. On 26 March, she made her debut in a 3–1 win over Konomiya Speranza Osaka-Takatsuki. On 11 June, she scored twice in a 6–0 away victory against Konomiya Speranza Osaka-Takatsuki in the Nadeshiko League Cup. On 25 December, she converted a penalty in INAC Kobe Leonessa's penalty shootout win over Albirex Niigata in the 2016 Empress's Cup Final, helping the club to its sixth Empress's Cup title. Cho finished the season with two goals in 27 appearances in all competitions. On 12 January 2017, it was announced that Cho had returned to Hyundai Steel Red Angels.

Avaldsnes IL

On 7 February 2018, Cho signed a one-year contract with Avaldsnes IL, becoming the first South Korean woman to play in Norway. On 22 April 2018, she made her debut in a 3–0 loss to Vålerenga. With Cho, Avaldsnes IL reached the round of 32 in the 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League.

West Ham United

In December 2018, South Korean media reported that Cho had signed for West Ham United of the English FA Women's Super League. Cho So-hyun was officially announced as a West Ham player on 13 January 2019 via the club website where she was quoted as saying "It's always been my ambition to play in England, so this is a very exciting time for me. It's a big league, and to be signing for a big club like West Ham with all the history, makes it even more special." Cho made her debut on the same day coming on as a second-half substitute against title challengers Manchester City. In February 2019, Cho provided both assists for Alisha Lehmann as West Ham beat Reading 2–1. Cho made her Women's FA Cup debut on 3 February 2019 in a 3–1 home victory over Blackburn Rovers. On 14 April 2019 West Ham reached their first FA Cup final by defeating Reading after a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. With the scoreline deadlocked at 1–1, Cho scored the decisive penalty to send West Ham to Wembley. On 6 July 2020, Cho signed a new two-year contract with West Ham.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 28 January 2021, Cho joined the FA WSL side Tottenham Hotspur on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season, with an option to make the loan permanent. With her men's counterpart Son Heung-min already at the club, it gave Spurs the rare distinction of having both the men's and women's South Korean national team captains at one club. Spurs announced Cho had officially signed for the club on 2 July 2021. She scored her first goal for Spurs and her first ever goal in England on 17 November 2021 in their League Cup tie against

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

Birmingham City

On 14 September 2023, Cho joined Women's Championship club

, signing a one-year contract with an option for another season.

International career

Cho captained

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. In their final group match Cho scored a vital equaliser against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. They would go on to win the match and finish second in their group which saw them qualify for the knockout stages. It was the first time South Korea had progressed to the round of 16. In 2015, she was named the KFA Footballer of the Year. In April 2018 Cho scored twice against the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

at the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup, a win which saw South Korea qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. On 17 May 2019, Cho was officially announced in the 2019 World Cup squad and would again captain the team. Despite South Korea losing their second group stage match to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, Cho was statistically the best player on the pitch according to football analytics site Twelve Football. In September 2021 Cho scored twice in a 12–0 victory over

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

in the Asian Cup qualifiers. On 30 January 2022, Cho made her 137th appearance for South Korea in a 1–0 victory over

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

at the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup and became the most capped South Korean footballer in the country's history. Cho scored her 23rd international goal on 3 February 2022, the opener in a 2–0 win over the Philippines. That victory saw South Korea reach the final of the AFC Women's Asian Cup for the first time in history. At the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

, Cho notably scored South Korea's only goal of the tournament in a 1–1 draw with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. While South Korea were thus knocked out of the tournament in the group stage, the result meant that Germany, the second-ranked team in the world, was also eliminated, which was described as one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Women's World Cup.

Personal life

In an interview with British journalist Drew Diamond, Cho revealed that amongst her many ambitions in life is to become a

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of a women's football club in her native South Korea. Alongside fellow South Korean footballer Son Heung-min, Cho was an ambassador for AIA Group where she promoted healthy living. Like Son, Cho also has a sponsorship deal with sportswear and equipment supplier

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list South Korea's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cho goal.''

Honours

Suwon FMC * WK League:

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels *WK League:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

INAC Kobe Leonessa * Empress's Cup:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

West Ham United * Women's FA Cup Finalist: 2018–19 South Korea *

Summer Universiade The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

Gold medal:

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

Bronze medal:

* Four Nations Tournament runner-up:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

* AFC Women's Asian Cup runner-up:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual * KFA Footballer of the Year: 2015

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, So-hyun 1988 births Living people Footballers from Seoul South Korean women's footballers South Korea women's youth international footballers South Korea women's under-20 international footballers South Korea women's international footballers Women's association football midfielders Suwon FC Women players Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels WFC players INAC Kobe Leonessa players West Ham United F.C. Women players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Women players Birmingham City W.F.C. players WK League players Nadeshiko League players Toppserien players Women's Super League players Women's Super League 2 players South Korean expatriate women's footballers South Korean expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate women's footballers in Japan South Korean expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate women's footballers in Norway South Korean expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England FISU World University Games gold medalists for South Korea Summer World University Games medalists in football FIFA Women's Century Club Footballers at the 2014 Asian Games Footballers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for South Korea Asian Games medalists in football Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Medalists at the 2009 Summer Universiade 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players 21st-century South Korean sportswomen