Paik Seung-ho joins Birmingham City on two-and-a-half-year deal

Korea's Paik Seung-ho kicks the ball during a game against Kyrgyzstan in the Round of 16 of the men's football tournament at Jinhwa Sports Center Stadium in Zhejiang Province, China on Sept. 27, 2023. [YONHAP]

After a week of speculation, Korean midfielder Paik Seung-ho signed with Championship club Birmingham City on a two-and-a-half-year deal that will see him in blue through the end of the 2025-26 season.

"Since I was young and started to watch football, one of my dreams was to come to England and play football," Paik, 26, said in a statement issued by the club on Monday. "When I heard Birmingham was interested in me, I was really happy."

Paik, a product of the Barcelona academy and current star of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, has been linked to Birmingham since last week.

He is now the second Korean player active in the Championship, alongside Stoke City’s Bae Jun-ho, and the third on Birmingham’s books. The club is also home to Choe Yu-ri and Cho So-hyun on the women’s team, and Hwang Hee-chan is just down the road in Wolverhampton.

"I have known the club since I was a young kid. So, after meeting the manager and directors, I decided to come here," Paik said. "I am really happy to be part of this club. I am really excited. I can't wait to start."

Generally playing as a center midfielder, Paik, 26, joined Jeonbuk ahead of the 2021 K League season after spending his formative years bouncing around Europe.

Coming up through the Barcelona youth system — he originally joined the U-13 team in 2010 — Paik struggled to see much game time with the Spanish club, falling foul of FIFA’s Article 19 “Protection of Minors” policy and ending up benched for years.

He eventually made two appearances for Barcelona’s B team before being traded to Girona in 2017, making 54 appearances for reserve team Peralada and just six for Girona, before joining 2. Bundesliga side Darmstadt 98 in 2019.

Paik saw some success in his early days with Darmstadt, racking up 41 appearances and two goals over two seasons, but his pitch time decreased over time and he was eventually released in the middle of his second season with the club.

Things did not immediately improve when he returned to Korea. Paik joined Jeonbuk in the spring of 2021, but was then dropped from the Korean U-23 squad two months later — as was fellow Barcelona-trainee-turned-European-dropout Lee Seung-woo.

But Paik turned things around when he arrived in the K League, carving out a spot in the center of the Jeonbuk midfield and winning the title with in 2021 and the FA Cup in 2022. He has made 82 appearances for the club over the past three seasons, scoring nine goals and picking up six assists.

Paik also worked his way back into the Korean national football team, racking up 15 caps in total, 12 of those in the last two years. He has scored three goals, two in friendlies against Iceland and Moldova in January 2022, and a career-highlight screamer against Brazil in the round of 16 at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

On the U-23 side, Paik was called up to the Hangzhou Asian Games squad as a wildcard pick last year and went on to captain the team at the Asiad. He led Korea to the top of the podium, earning a crucial mandatory military service exemption for every player in the squad.

Paik could get his first shot at some blues action this Saturday when the club takes on local rivals West Brom in the Championship.

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