Turkish fans go wild for Oh Hyeon-gyu's winner against Czech Republic

Turkish football fans erupted in celebration Friday after Oh Hyeon-gyu, who plays for Istanbul club Besiktas, scored a dramatic go-ahead goal for South Korea against the Czech Republic in the team's opening match of the 2026 World Cup.

Oh struck with his left foot in the 80th minute to give South Korea a 2-1 lead. Besiktas immediately posted on its official Instagram account: "80' Oh Hyeon-gyu goal. Korea vs. Czech Republic 2-1." After the final whistle, the club followed up with a photo of Oh raising his right hand in celebration, captioning it: "Oh Hyeon-gyu delivers victory for South Korea in Group A."

The two posts drew nearly 500,000 likes almost instantly.

Turkish fans flooded the comments with praise. "A Korean player scored just 10 minutes after coming on," one wrote. "I stayed up all night to watch — it was perfect," said another. Other reactions included "Besiktas's boy," "The wait for Oh Hyeon-gyu was worth it," and "He's worth 100 million euros (about $116 million)."

Major Turkish media outlets also gave the moment prominent coverage. "Besiktas star Oh Hyeon-gyu delivered three points for South Korea. He completely changed the flow of the game," the newspaper Milliyet wrote.

Broadcaster NTV reported that "the Besiktas star player won a World Cup match while running a fever of 38 degrees Celsius," and went on to detail that Oh's parents, who run a "chueo-tang" — a Korean loach soup restaurant — have temporarily closed their doors to cheer on their son at the World Cup.

Because the match kicked off at 5 a.m. local time in Turkey, the Korean community there had no chance to gather for a group viewing. Instead, many congregated in a Korean-language group chat, sharing reactions such as "It was worth waking up in the middle of the night — so exciting!" and "I'm going to go buy a Besiktas jersey."