Last month, KRC Genk signed Oh Hyeon-gyu from Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min played a key role in helping the striker leave Brendan Rodgers’ side for the Belgian club.
That’s according to Friday’s edition of Het Belang van Limburg, and they’ve covered comments from the former Celtic man, backing this up.
It’s claimed the Tottenham star gave the ‘final push’ for the 23-year-old to leave Celtic for Genk.
Son knows Genk manager Thorsten Fink as he played under the German at Hamburg SV between 2011 and 2013. This helped the 32-year-old South Korea international to get a move to Bayer Leverkusen in 2013, before leaving them for Tottenham in 2015.
He played alongside Oh Hyeon-gyu with the national team and Son spoke highly of Fink’s influence in his career. It was one of the reasons that convinced the player to join the Jupiler Pro League side from Celtic.
“Son was extremely positive about the impact Fink had on his career. As a striker you like to play in a team with a coach who wants to attack. He therefore advised me to move to Genk. I am happy to be here and know that my chance will come. I feel ready to play, but I follow the coach’s wishes. I have patience,” he said.
Celtic signed Oh from South Korean side Suwon Samsung Bluewings in January 2023. The played found it difficult to enjoy regular minutes during his time at Celtic Park as he was limited to 1,317 minutes from 47 games, scoring 12 goals in the process. This was also another reason why he left Brendan Rodgers’ side this summer.
“That’s how it goes in football but of course I wanted to play more,” Oh explained.
“I gladly accepted Genk’s proposal. I have a close relationship with my compatriot Hyeung-seok Hong, central midfielder of Gent. He had nothing but praise for Genk. A nice club, which plays offensive football and would therefore definitely suit me. I do look forward to the duels with Gent. I also saw the very last match between the two clubs last season, which was not such a nice moment for Genk.”
