Rumour Mongering: Liverpool vs. North Korea

In the land of rumour mongering there’s a seemingly endless supply of silly, nonsensical, and even downright stupid rumours floating about. For Liverpool fans, though, this one is a first, and even if there’s almost certainly no truth to it, it seems well worth mentioning if only for its exceptional strangeness.

In sum, and according to Il Corriere dello Sport, Liverpool want to sign Han Kwang-song. If you don’t know who he is—and chances are you don’t—he’s a 19-year-old North Korean striker currently playing with Serie B side Perugia on loan from Cagliari, for whom he’s previously made five senior appearances.

He’s made 19 total appearances this season for Perugia and scored seven goals. It’s a promising return for a young striker playing in Serie B, and those who keep a close eye on Italian football believe he does have a fair bit of promise, but for a club like Liverpool he’d at most be a signing for the future.

They won’t be signing him, though—assuming they were in for him, which they probably weren’t—because North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wants him to stay in Serie A, join Juventus, and become a star there. Because when Kim Jong-un studied in Switzerland he sometimes went to watch Milan play at the San Siro.

In the pantheon of strange transfer rumours, having a despot block a player moving to your club because he’d rather he go to a side in a league he once watched another club in play live a few times has to rank pretty damn high. It’s almost certainly complete and utter bullshit. But at least it’s interesting.

So. Thanks for that, Il Corriere dello Sport. And Kim Jong-un, I guess.