Han Kwang-Song, a former Juventus player, was once considered one of Italy’s most promising young forwards. However, his career took a turn for the worse in 2020 when he joined Al-Duhail after failing to make a single appearance for Juventus. Han, who is now 24 years old, spent most of his time in the Under-23s, where he failed to score in 17 appearances at the third-tier Serie C level.
Han’s journey to Europe began when he featured at a football academy in Barcelona before returning to his homeland to join FC Chobyong. He then impressed at the 2015 Under-17 World Cup in Chile, and Italian senator Antonio Razzi, who is close friends with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, invited Han to join the ISM Academy in Italy. Han broke through at Cagliari and began impressing on loan at Perugia, where his form saw him invited onto sports show La Domenica Sportiva.
However, while waiting in his hotel in Milan to be taken to the studio, the government of Pyongyang reportedly ordered a ban on the starlet making a public appearance over the phone. Perugia president Massimiliano Santopadre said that “a call from a not very clear ministry figure arrived and it blocked everything. Negotiating was impossible because Pyongyang want to talk only and exclusively with Han. The situation with their government has become even more rigid and their footballers have been prohibited from appearing on TV, otherwise they would have repatriated him. Han is scared.”
Mundo Deportivo claimed that Kim acts as a father figure to Han and has always wanted to control everything, including the youngster’s career. The North Korean dictator was even said to have been an avid watcher of Serie A to keep up on his fellow countryman’s progress. Arsenal, Everton, and Liverpool were once rumoured to be interested in signing Han, but the British government would have likely moved to block any Premier League move.
Expert in North Korean sport, Dr Udo Merkel, claimed that this would have occurred because part of Han’s wages have to be sent home by law. The Brighton University lecturer told the Daily Star: “Under current UN sanctions, money sent to the North Korean government would be seriously considered support for the nuclear programme for the country. So I don’t think, under current the situation with several UN sanctions, and several UN resolutions banning the country from trading with any other countries to export, for example oil products and lots of other things to North Korea, that the move would be possible. The move is not going to happen as long as the UN sanctions stay in place.”
Asked if the British government would block the move, he said: “I think that is the most likely scenario.”