Who is Park Seung-soo, Newcastle United's latest signing? | OneFootball

Suwon Samsung Bluewings announced on Thursday evening the news we've all been expecting; Park Seung-soo has departed the club to become a Newcastle United player. But what do we know about the 18-year-old left winger?

Newcastle United's acquisition of young Korean winger Park Seung-soo comes at a very interesting time. Park has already made 11 appearances in K League 2 this year and his new employers, fresh from Champions League qualification and a League Cup trophy, will visit South Korea for a two-match tour against Team K League and Tottenham Hotspur.

Oh, and the Team K League match on Wednesday, July 30th will take place at Suwon World Cup Stadium. Of course it will!

Player Details

Date of Birth: March 17th, 2007.

Name in Korean: 박승수.

Height: 183 cm.

Weight: 62 kg.

K League Club: Suwon Samsung Bluewings.

Position: Left wing.

Style of Play: Powerful and direct. Good dribbling skills and can take on and beat players.

K League 2 stats: 25 matches (6 starts), one goal and two assists.

Suwon Starlet

Park Seung-soo is the latest high-profile youngster off the Suwon production line to earn a contract abroad (or with K League 1 rivals!) He made his Bluewings debut in the Korean Cup Round of 16 tie away to Pohang Steelers in June, 2024. Only a few months past his 17th birthday, Park set up Jeon Jin-woo's (another Suwon starlet to fly the nest) opening goal in extra-time. Unfortunately for Park and Suwon, Pohang equalized right at the death and eliminated the Bluewings on penalties.

New manager Byun Sung-hwan was suitably impressed, and included the youngster on the bench four days later against Seongnam FC. When Park made his entrance in the 71st minute, he became the youngest K League 2 player in history. Suwon won 3-0.

Suwon's #47 would go on to break a couple more records in the next month. His equalizing goal against Ansan Greeners made him the youngest goalscorer in K League 2 history, aged 17 years, 3 months, and 13 days. It was then that we were introduced to his trademark guitar celebration. Park became an instant hit with the Suwon faithful. They instantly fell in love with his spirit, tenacity, and burgeoning dribbling skills. He was 17 but didn't look a day over 10. And the North Stand imitated his celebration. That remains his one and only Suwon goal.

The next record to fall his way was youngest assist provider in K League 2 history two weeks later against Cheonan City FC. In all, Park would made 15 league appearances in the second half of 2024 for the Bluewings. Unconnected to the young midfielder, Suwon's season ended very poorly. After being favorites to make an instant return to K League 1 after their shocking relegation the previous winter, Suwon didn't even make the play-offs, ending the year in 6th spot. Park was one of the very few bright spots over a difficult campaign.

He started 2025 in good form. I was at the Korean Cup 2nd Round clash with Seoul E-Land, two days after his 18th birthday.Here's an extract from my match report. "Park Seung-soo, the youngest player on show, was introduced at the break for Park Sang-hyeok. The 18-year-old moved to the left flank and immediately caused problems for the Seoul defense. One excursion led to Kwon Wan-kyu crossing for Kim Ji-hyeon to head off the foot of the post." Suwon won 2-1.

Park on a trademark sprint down the left flank at Big Bird, this time against Busan I-Park.

Sadly for Park, he hasn't quite hit the same heights this year. His final appearance for Suwon (for now at least) was as a replacement against Chungbuk Cheongju on July 12th. By that point, rumors were already swirling around Big Bird, Suwon's home ground, that Park was only days away from a move abroad. He came on with 19 minutes to go in a game the Bluewings dominated but had to wait until injury time for Paulinho's stunning winner. If that is to be his last appearance in blue, at least it was a memorable one.

In total, Park featured 11 times in the league this season, without recording a goal or an assist. After the embarrassment of a 6th-place finish last term, the club invested heavily in their attacking options over the winter. Goal scoring has been a major issue for years. The lack of goals caused their seismic relegation in late 2023. As promising as Park is, the Bluewings have simply adopted awin now mentality, which means Bruno Silva holds down the position Park would like to play.

One other noteworthy match this year featuring Park was matchday 11 against Cheonan City. Suwon won 2-0 but this fixture also marked Park's first home start at Big Bird. He lasted 69 minutes without providing much in attack. TV cameras picked up the winger crying in the dugout. He later said he wanted to make a big impression given it was a landmark day in his career.

Park has now departed Suwon as we suspected for nearly a fortnight. He leaves with a total of 25 K League 2 (6 starts) and 3 Korean Cup matches under his belt. Offensively, he has scored once and provided three assists for his boyhood club.

He is definitely one for the future. Park is till very raw. It is highly unlikely he will feature much for Newcastle United this season. I'd imagine he'll be used in Newcastle's underage system, with an outside chance of a loan move. Suwon supporters would have loved to keep him until December when the K League 2 season wraps up, as his club is very much in the discussion for automatic promotion. But, overall, the view from most quarters is a move to England will be amazing for his development.

His strength is his dribbling skills. Appearances can be deceiving. When I first saw Park play, I thought he was a traditional number 9. But he has pace, good trickery, can beat opponents, and has above average acceleration. He needs to improve his final pass and arguably his defensive work, too.

Park, and Newcastle fans, will need patience. He's still a very young man, traveling to the other side of the world to play football in a vastly different culture. He'll need to learn English and adapt to very alien surroundings. As a Bluewings fan, I'll watch with great interest his development and wish him all the best in Newcastle. I will be at Big Bird next week to see his new team, Newcastle United, take on Team K League. For more on that match, we interviewed Bruno Mota last weekend.