Sought-after Taggart plays down J.League links

K-League Golden Boot winner Adam Taggart has shrugged aside reported interest from two J.League clubs, insisting his job at Suwon Bluewings is far from finished.

Suwon Bluewings striker Adam Taggart

Suwon Bluewings striker Adam Taggart Source: Suwon Bluewings - Facebook

Contracted with the K1 League club until 2021, the Socceroos marksman has become a hot property in Asia after his 20-goal debut season haul for Korea Republic’s FA Cup winners.

His exploits since signing from Brisbane Roar in January have won Taggart a national team recall, and covetous glances from across the region - most notably the J1 League.

But the 26-year-old - who has scored 29 goals in 52 games for Brisbane, Suwon and the Socceroos this calendar year - isn’t getting too starry-eyed.

“I’m just focusing on the future with Suwon and going on to do well with them in ACL next season and finishing higher up the league than we managed this year, which was a bit of a disappointment,” Taggart said.

“Of course in football anything can happen, and things can change, but like I said it’s all about Suwon and what I hope to achieve with them at the moment.

“You always want to better yourself and challenge yourself as a player, and that’s what I’ve been doing since joining Suwon.

“That’s what's motivating me and I’m not thinking about anything else other than taking a bit of a break and recharging the batteries now for next season.”

Reflecting on his year of living famously, Taggart continued: “For me it’s been a year that’s exceeded a lot of expectations and I couldn’t be happier at my club - there’s hopefully plenty more success to come.

“I think we can keep getting better - winning the FA Cup was great and hopefully that’s just the start for us as a team.”

There will only be a brief respite for Taggart, with the AFC Champions League group stage looming early next year and the Copa America in June, where Australia face the intimidating trio of hosts Argentina, old adversaries Uruguay and Chile, plus Bolivia and Paraguay.
“For us it’s maybe a last chance to face a genius like Lionel Messi whose coming to the end of his career and to share the same field as him would be amazing,” Taggart said.

“There’s also the likes of Luis Suarez ... these are players you dream about testing yourselves against.

“The tournament will only improve us as a nation and give us even more motivation to stay at the top of our games as the year unfolds with our clubs.

“How can you not benefit from being at an event with so much prestige and history - and so many great players?

“We know we have the quality and the belief to do well and not be overawed by these types of situations and opponents.

“We’ve qualified for the last four World Cups and have faced plenty of top flight opposition in the past, so this will be more of the same.

“People are obviously going to talk about Argentina and Uruguay for obvious reasons but Chile are a great football nation and Bolivia and Paraguay will also be very tough because there are no weak nations in South America.”


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3 min read
Published 12 December 2019 10:25am
By Dave Lewis

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