Better Than Ok
A new star has been born from the Busy Bees, as Grilled International's youth academy saw midfielder Bongwoon Ok officially named a prospect for Brunei's U-20 squad, and picked up by Belgian Division Six club Standard Bauche for close to S$1.3 million, days after turning seventeen.
One of Bees scout Adinath Pant's favourites, "
OK" had been two cuts above the competition in the junior scene, and his development continued by leaps and bounds in the academy. The result would be an assured operator as at home dictating play from the middle as cutting in from out wide - and with blazing pace underlying it all.
"It's perhaps the most important attribute for modern footballers." Pant commented. "Having the speed to recover covers a multitude of flaws. Not that Ok has many of them. Boy had a great head on his shoulders."
Standard Bauche were a relatively late suitor, with Italian VI.169 side Gigi Team 84 looking the most likely to land the young talent for the longest time. Their Croatian head coach Aleksandar Šrajber had gone as far as to send a personal representative for the negotiations, and also dangled the possibility of working with Ugandan contemporary Andrew Otim. This could not quite measure up to Bauche's record of nuturing multi-million-rated youth such as Bogdan Juncu and Maarten Raav, however, and 18 year-old left winger Senne Langue is already commanding an additional premium of over three million dollars, after spending but a season at the club.
Other than Bauche and Gigi, VICE ROOM (Portuguese Division Five) and F.C. Vandendries (Belgian Division Six) were also serious contenders willing to fork out seven figures, with La pexte (Argentine Division Six), WilleMeNiKunne (Belgian Division Six), FC Zarca (Swedish Division Four), losrelampagos (Spanish Division Five), Deportivo Stratocaster (Chilean Division Five), Stars II (Italian Division Five), FC Taka-ala (Puerto Rican Division Four), Pendar (Iranian Division Three), M.K.PAŞA SPOR (Turkish Division Four), Tornado Odessa FC (Ukrainian Division Four) and Eiðis Satinsky (Faroese Division Four) also making approaches.
