Transfer market stays quiet for top Korean prospects

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Transfer market stays quiet for top Korean prospects

Published: 25 Jan. 2023, 16:35

There’s just six days to go until the European January transfer window closes and so far there has been very little movement for any Korean players.

Oh Hyeon-gyu of K League side Suwon Samsung Bluewings is the only play that appears to be making a move, with Celtic reported Wednesday to have finalized a deal worth £2.5 million ($3 million) with the Korean club and both Oh and his manager Lee Byung-keun supporting the move.

But while Oh looks set to follow in the footsteps of Ki Sung-yueng and Cha Du-ri in Glasgow, he’s a very lonely Korean figure in the transfer market.

Oh Hyeon-gyu celebrates after scoring for the Suwon Samsung Bluewings in a K League game against FC Seoul at Seoul World Cup Stadium on Sept. 4. [NEWS1]

There was a lot of excitement around possible Korean transfers during the January transfer window, with Cho Gue-sung and Hwang Ui-jo looking like sure things and Lee Kang-in and Hwang Hee-chan both considered serious contenders. So far, none of those players have come any closer than being loosely linked to a possible move.

Twenty-five-year-old Cho Gue-sung made a name for himself at the 2022 Qatar World Cup where he became the first Korean ever to score multiple goals in a single World Cup game.

Cho left Qatar as Korea’s biggest rising star, pulling in fans with both his prowess in front of goal and his K-pop star good looks.

Cho, who is yet to play outside of Korea’s K League, saw his number of Instagram followers increase by 2 million after making his World Cup debut in Korea’s opening game against Uruguay. Media requests quickly followed, with a topless Cho gracing the front cover of the January Korean edition of Vogue magazine.

But look away from the beauty parade and there’s plenty for football fans to get excited about. Cho left the Qatar World Cup after appearing in four games, starting three and scoring two goals, both against Ghana on Nov. 28.

Cho Gue-sung of the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors celebrates after scoring in a 2-0 win over FC Seoul at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, North Jeolla on Oct. 30, 2022. [YONHAP]

Dig a little deeper into the numbers and there’s even more reason to get excited about Cho. According to statistics accumulator Squawka, Cho proved to be one of the greatest players in the air in Qatar. The young Korean forward won 21 aerial duels, putting him second in terms of success in the air among all players at the World Cup, after Morocco’s Youssef En-Nesyri.

In football analytics, a duel is used to refer to any clash between two players, whether in the air or on the ground. Every duel has a winner and a loser — the winner is the one that gets the ball.

Ranking second for aerial duel wins across the entire World Cup clearly highlights just how deadly Cho is in the air. On 21 occasions he successfully headed the ball while jostling with an opposing player, including for both goals against Ghana.

Cho was also the top scorer in the K League last season with 17 goals.

Unsurprisingly, the offers quickly came flooding in, with Celtic, U.S. side Minnesota United and Mainz 05 of the Bundesliga all linked to the Korean forward. Celtic are believed to have tabled an offer at £3 million, with Minnesota reportedly offering $5 million and Mainz £2.5 million.

But nearly a month after the excitement, Cho remains signed with the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the K League with no move in sight. The club said earlier this month that Cho is now unlikely to move this winter, with the club and player agreeing to wait until the summer for a better deal.

Hwang Ui-jo is also still without an offer, despite Greek club Olympiacos reportedly being desperate to drop the ineffective loanee.

Hwang, once the top scorer for then-Ligue 1 club Bordeaux, has seen things go from bad to worse since he was shipped off to Greece in the summer.

Olympiacos' Hwang Ui-jo fights for the ball with Nantes defender Nicolas Pallois during a UEFA Europa League match at La Beaujoire stadium in Nantes, on Sept. 8, 2022. [AFP/YONHAP]

After making a slow start to his career with Olympiacos, where he is technically on loan from Nottingham Forest, the striker has been entirely excluded from the squad for the last nine Super League games, and has only played more than 11 minutes in three league matches this season.

In the Europa League he has seen more success, appearing in every game this season until Olympiacos was knocked out in November.

He has not scored a single goal in all competitions and has just one assist in a league game on Sept. 3. Considering that he spent the last two seasons as Bordeaux’s top scorer in the French Ligue 1, Hwang’s form has taken an exceptionally steep dive and, at 30, it’s difficult to imagine how many opportunities he is going to get to bounce back.

With Hwang’s form showing little sign of improving in Greece, the club are now entertaining offers from overseas for the Korean forward. As Hwang has already played for both Bordeaux and Olympiacos this season, he is ineligible to play competitive games for a third team under FIFA rules.

However, if Hwang moves to a team playing in a league that does not follow a concurrent schedule to the Greek league, he will be able to play. The most obvious candidates for Hwang’s new home are teams in Korea or the United States.

Major League Soccer teams, presumably Hwang’s preferred option, reportedly have come calling, with Greek media reporting Wednesday that Olympiacos have received offers from both Atlanta United and Minnesota United.

According to those reports, the MLS clubs are not only interested in taking over the loan from Forest, but also potentially in buying Hwang outright. Yet despite all those reporters, Hwang remains parked in Greece with no serious offer apparently on the table.

For Lee and Hwang Hee-chan the chance of a move was always slimmer.

Twenty-one-year-old Lee, a regular starter for La Liga club Mallorca and an increasingly key member of the Korean national squad, has so far been linked to Premier League clubs Aston Villa and Newcastle, Championship side Burnley and Dutch club Feyenoord.

The interest in the young Korean is not especially surprising.

Mallorca's Lee Kang-in Lee gestures during a La Liga match against UD Almeria at Visit Mallorca Estadi Stadium in Palma de Mallorca on Sept. 17, 2022. [EPA/YONHAP]

Lee joined Mallorca last year after a decade in Valencia and has been having a particularly good season, scoring two goals and picking up three assists so far and earning a player of the month nomination along the way.

Lee has established himself an especially effective playmaker, using fancy footwork to beat defenders and his impressive accuracy to get the ball up to the front.

Lee reportedly has a 17-million-euro ($18 million) release clause, a fee that ought to be fairly easy for major clubs to meet if the interest is there, but Mallorca are said to be very keen on keeping the rising star, at least until the summer.

Hwang Hee-chan has also been taking an increasingly important role with Wolverhampton Wanderers, where, despite riding a painfully long league dry spell, he has returned to the starting lineup under new manager Julen Lopetegui and has started being far more active on the offensive.

Hwang Hee-chan of Wolverhampton Wanderers celebrates scoring during an FA Cup match against Liverpool at Anfield in Liverpool on Jan. 7. [EPA/YONHAP]

Hwang has long been connected to Leeds United under American manager Jessy Marsch, with the two having previously worked together in a very successful Red Bull Salzburg squad in 2019.

Marsch is said to be keen to bring Hwang back into his squad, although the Korean midfielder seems to be gelling well with Lopetegui and may want to stay where he is.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]