It was Chungbuk Cheongju FC’s Giorgi who saved Busan I-Park from despair in the last minute, as the team was favored to win the K League 2 title this season.

Busan looked to be on course to defeat Chungbuk Cheongju 1-0 until just over a minute before the final whistle of the final 39th round home match of the Hana OneQ K League 2 2023 at Busan Asiadju Stadium on Saturday.

At the same time, it looked like they would win the title and earn promotion to the top division after three seasons of relegation.

In Chungbuk Cheongju’s final attack in the second half of stoppage time, when Busan’s victory seemed assured, Kim Myung-soon’s cross from the right flank was headed toward Jorgi, who was still battling with the defense.

After chasing the ball past the Busan defenders, he stumbled and barely managed to get his toe on the ball before shooting.

The ball left his toes and curved into a gentle parabola, which Busan goalkeeper Koo Sang-min couldn’t reach.

For Busan, it was a devastating moment as their championship dreams came to an end, but for Giorgi, it was a reward for not giving up in the final moments of the season.

He finished the season ranked fifth in scoring with 13 goals.

He has the same number of goals as Cho Young-wook and Gleison (Gyeongnam), who both played for Gimcheon Sangmu, but he has played the most matches and is ranked fifth.

He told the media after the game, “I’m a striker. I feel good every time I score a goal,” and reflected, “I think I felt even better because I thought about the meaning of the goal.”

Since joining upstart Chungbuk Cheongju as a ‘loanee’ before the start of the season, he has appeared in 34 matches and scored a team-high 13 goals.

Thanks to his strong play, Chungbuk Cheongju cruised to the semi-playoffs (PO) despite being a new team, finishing eighth out of 13 teams (13 wins, 13 draws, 10 losses) at the end of the season.

“Over the course of the season, we became a team,” says George. “Looking back, we had a lot of good days, a lot of happy memories,” he said. “I would love to stay here. But it’s not possible, so I’ll do my best to go back to my native team in Portugal.”

Chungbuk Cheongju coach Choi Yun-gyeom also said at the press conference, “I can’t catch him,” when asked about Giorgi’s whereabouts.

“He’s so good (here) that there’s a difference between the amount of money we paid when we brought him and his current price. If a foreign player is good, he will be paid more,” Choi lamented. 슬롯게이밍