Wooyeong Jeong: MD8’s Man of the Matchday

The 22-year-old attacker pounced in the 64th minute of Freiburg’s fixture at home to RB Leipzig on Saturday, heading in a pinpoint Vincenzo Grifo cross to cancel out Emil Forsberg’s opener for last season’s Bundesliga runners-up.

It was far from against the run of play, either. Christian Streich’s side had more possession (52 per cent), completed more passes (383 to 366), made more sprints (218 to 202), won more tackles (90 to 76) and had more shots at goal (15 to 13) than their visitors as they endeavoured to pick up three points in the first competitive game at their new state-of-the-art Europa-Park Stadion.

Watch: Freiburg's new home

In the end they had to settle for a 1-1 draw - a disappointing result perhaps given the balance of play - but one that keeps them unbeaten and in fourth place on 16 points from eight games, extending their best-ever start to a Bundesliga campaign.

That run also includes a 2-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund on Matchday 2 – further evidence that this is no mere purple patch from Freiburg; they are simply a very good team. And Jeong is increasingly becoming a key part of that.

He joined from Bayern Munich in summer 2019, but returned to his former club on a six-month loan spell midway through 2019/20, helping Sebastian Hoeneß's reserves to lift the 3. Liga title. His CV also includes the Bundesliga and DFB Cup, after a handful of cameo appearances with the Bayern first team in 2018/19.

Returning to Freiburg for the start of 2020/21, the South Korean made just nine starts in 28 competitive outings, but still found time to score against VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund, as well as grabbing substitute goals against Arminia Bielefeld and Eintracht Frankfurt.

This season he appears to be more central to Streich's plans, having already started seven of Freiburg’s eight league assignments. After two early goals in the thrilling 3-2 win over Stuttgart - his first Bundesliga brace - Jeong's close-range header against Leipzig made him the team’s leading scorer with three for the campaign.

“He’s a really great person, away from the pitch too,” said Streich of his No.29. “He’s just fantastic, especially when you see how much he runs and helps the team. He loves football, is hard-working and disciplined. Wooyeong has developed in every area, as a character too. And he’s really funny. I’m very happy with him.”

Understandably so. Jeong’s upswing this term is arguably the result of suffering the frustration of being left out of South Korea’s Olympic squad over the summer, having been part of the preliminary roster prior to the tournament. He helped his country to win silver at the Youth Olympics in 2014.

“It was a difficult time for me,” Jeong admitted after learning of his exclusion. “I was disappointed and needed some time to get over it.”

He did just that, and then decided to kick on: “My aim is to play in every game and to help the team. I’m continuing to work hard so that I can play more this season than I did in the last one. I’m an attacker and I want to score lots of goals.”

With both Jeong and Freiburg in this kind of form, that now looks to be a certainty.