Stoke City playmaker among Championship’s most in-demand players.
Bae Junho has had a very busy year for club and country.
Bae Junho is one of only 10 Championship players and by far the youngest to feature in 50 or more matches in 2024.
The 21-year-old playmaker has 44 times for Stoke plus another eight for South Korea’s senior team or under-23s since January, clocking up thousands of miles and 3,446 minutes of action.
It is not the most minutes in the division by a stretch – Leeds United’s Joe Rodon (5,276 minutes) takes that honour, a long way clear of Oxford United’s Ciaran Brown (4,614) and Sunderland defender Trai Hume (4,521).
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But few will have matched the travelling schedule of Stoke’s player of the year, who has chipped in with five assists so far this term but is still waiting to get on the scoresheet for the first time. He had what would have bene an excellent winner controversially ruled out for Stoke at Queens Park Rangers last month.
The research has been carried out by the CIES Football Observatory, which names Barcelona and France’s Jules Kounde as the most used outfield player in the world in 2024. He has ticked up an incredible 5,872 minutes over 69 matches for club and country.
There is only one player under 20 in the most in-demand top 100; Reading’s New Zealand international Tyler Bindon.
Junho might have got more games under his belt if South Korea had qualified for the Olympics but they missed out on a spot at Paris when he stayed with Stoke at the end of last season to help stay in the Championship rather than jet out for qualifying ties.
He also missed the first month of this season in the league due to a thigh injury he picked up in pre-season. Remarkably, he was the second longest-serving player in Stoke’s starting XI last weekend and he is currently preparing for a trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday (12.30pm)
