Who is Hwang In-beom? The globetrotter piquing Premier League interest

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Who is Hwang In-beom? The globetrotter piquing Premier League interest

Published: 03 Jun. 2024, 15:01 Updated: 03 Jun. 2024, 16:35

JIM BULLEY
jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr

Hwang In-beom celebrates after scoring the first goal during a Group E match against Bahrain at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in Doha, Qatar on Jan. 15. [YONHAP]

Red Star Belgrade midfielder Hwang In-beom landed on the radar of a few Premier League scouts this season, reportedly drawing interest from Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton Wanderers while ending his first stint in Serbia with two titles, a nod as Player of the Year and a something-to-tell-your-grandkids-about goal against Manchester City.

The recent interest could be a sign that Hwang’s luck is about to change.

A versatile midfielder with 58 national team caps and experience across three continents, Hwang has already gone through more off-the-pitch upheavals than most players will in their entire career — and none of them were his fault.

From aborted military service to Covid-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the madness that is Olympiacos, Hwang’s career has bounced from one extreme to the next since he left Daejeon Citizen in 2018.

So who is Hwang, where has he been and does he have what it takes to make it in the Premier League?

Military service lite

Hwang started his career with his hometown club Daejeon Citizen in 2015.

A local boy made good, 18-year-old Hwang became the youngest scorer in Daejeon history in May that year when he scored his first goal against the Pohang Steelers. He made 88 appearances over the next three seasons, racking up 15 goals and earning a reputation as one of the league’s most exciting young players.

Daejeon Hana Citizen's Hwang In-beom poses after an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo at the Deokam Football Center in Daejeon on Nov. 26, 2018. [JOONGANG ILBO]

In 2018, Hwang opted to join police football club Asan Mugunghwa in a bid to get his military service out of the way early in his career. He was also called up to the Korean U-23 squad for the Jakarta Palembang Asian Games.

Korea went on to win gold at the Asian Games, earning Hwang an immediate military exemption, allowing him to pack his bags and drop straight out of the Asan squad, returning to Daejeon instead.

Korea's Hwang In-beom shoots during the U-23 men's football final at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia on Sept. 1, 2018. [NEWS1]

His first senior squad call-up came shortly after the Asian Games, and Hwang bagged his first goal for the Taeguk Warriors in a friendly against Panama on Oct. 16, 2018.

The wrong kind of hamburger

As Hwang’s profile continued to grow, Daejeon, relegated to the K League 2 in 2016, began to see the offers piling up.

One club strongly linked to Hwang was Hamburger SV, the 2. Bundesliga team that had kick-started Son Heung-min’s career in Europe.

A classic gateway-to-Europe team, Hamburger were on the hunt for the next Son and reportedly put in an offer for the young Hwang. That move could have set him on the path to bigger and better things in the Bundesliga or elsewhere in Europe, but Hamburger were out-bidded and Daejeon opted to follow the money.

Instead of Hamburg, Hwang was shipped off to Major League Soccer club Vancouver White Caps at the start of 2019.

The MLS at the time was seen as a dead-end, end-of-career option, not the place to launch a promising career. Hwang made the most of it, scoring his first goal a month after debuting and earning Team of the Week honors with three assists in a single game against LA Galaxy later in the season.

False start in Russia

Hwang only lasted a year and a half in the MLS, making 40 appearances for the White Caps before being traded to Russian side Rubin Kazan in the middle of the 2020 season.

Hwang appeared to find his feet in Russia, establishing himself as a regular starter with Rubin Kazan and gaining a reputation as one of the best playmakers in the league. Despite a run-in with Covid-19 and an ankle injury, Hwang remained a consistent figure in the Rubin Kazan squad for the best part of two years.

Hwang In-beom in Russian club Rubin Kazan gear. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

In both Vancouver and Russia, Hwang developed into more of a traditional box-to-box number eight, playing across the full length of the pitch and racking up as many assists as he did goals. Russian media particularly praised his play-making ability, with Hwang recording five goals and five assists over 35 games with Rubin Kazan.

Things were going well, then Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. After two months of uncertainty, FIFA announced on April 3 that the contracts of any foreign players playing in Russia would be suspended until the end of June, freeing up players like Hwang who were locked in deals with Russian clubs.

Hwang left Russia and returned to Korea, joining FC Seoul on a temporary contract through the end of June, when FIFA agreed to completely void the contracts of all foreign players tied to Russian clubs.

At FC Seoul on a temporary contract, Hwang In-beom plays during a game against Jeju United in the round of 16 of the 2022 FA Cup at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on May 25, 2022. [YONHAP]

Now finally a free man, Hwang signed with FC Seoul in July, only to change his mind and sign with Greek side Olympiacos a week later.

A Greek tragedy

But that move to Olympiacos, the winningest team in Greek football history, was just as tumultuous as the rest of Hwang’s career.

Despite having won the league 47 times, including for three straight seasons, Olympiacos finished the 2022-23 campaign in a disappointing third place. Over the course of the season, the club saw four different managers, 21 signings and 47 players used.

But even more bizarrely, the club spent a good part of the season threatening to resign from the league, despite club president and owner Evangelos Marinakis, also the owner of Nottingham Forest and the man behind a lot of the complaints about the league, being the president of said league.

Hwang In-beom scores his debut goal for Greek club Olympiacos during a match against Volos at the Bolos Pantesalico Stadium in Greece on Jan. 8, 2023. [NEWS1]

Olympiacos’ constant threats to resign came due to the club’s belief that the league is rigged. Accusations of corruption — and, not so long ago, evidence of it — are incredibly common in Greece, prompting the league to use only foreign referees during playoffs due to constant accusations of bias against domestic referees.

Or at least that used to be the case. UEFA withdrew its commitment to provide referees in May last year after Italian referee Davide Massa reported that as he entered the changing room following a fiery clash between AEK Athens and Olympiacos, he felt “a blow on the genitals without recognizing from whom,” according to the official match report.

UEFA now say the safety of match officials cannot be guaranteed in Greece.

Against this backdrop, it’s hardly a surprise that Hwang spent last summer pushing for a way out of Olympiacos. He didn't have a bad season — he had two goals and four assists and was voted Olympiacos’ best player and the league’s second-best — and there was interest from a number of top European clubs including Serie A sides Inter Milan and Atalanta.

But Olympiacos refused to sell, with Hwang at one point reportedly considering legal options. Then suddenly, out of the blue, Hwang was shipped off to Red Star Belgrade on a club and league record 5-million-euro ($5.4-million) deal in September last year.

Bouncing back in Belgrade

Red Star are a bastion of eastern European football. As the most successful team anywhere in the Balkans or southeast Europe, they enjoy the support of nearly 50 percent of the Serbian population and have won the Serbian Super Liga for the last seven consecutive seasons.

But it’s also a fairly intimidating place to go and play football.

Serbia is home to a particularly aggressive brand of football hooliganism, and nowhere is that more evident than among the die-hard fan bases of Belgrade’s top clubs Red Star and Partizan.

Red Star Belgrade's Hwang In-beom, left, vies for the ball with Young Boy's Joel Monteiro during a UEFA Champions League Group G match in Belgrade, Serbia on Oct. 4, 2023. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Playing in front of those crowds — not to mention dealing with racism from TV pundits — is not for the faint-hearted, but Hwang rose to the occasion with six goals and six assists across all competitions, including both a goal and an assist against Man City in the Champions League.

Red Star won both the Serbian Super Liga and Serbian Cup titles, with Hwang adding an assist in the cup final.

What’s next?

Hwang remains a classic end-to-end number eight, with as much of a talent for defense as he has for moving the ball up the pitch.

At the club level, Hwang has been at the center of Red Star’s success this season and the Serbian club is likely to do everything they can to keep him. But there are plenty of clubs across Europe with a hole in their roster for a center midfielder with experience and something to prove.

Red Star Belgrade's Hwang In-beom reacts during a UEFA Champions League Group B match against Young Boys at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern, on Nov. 28, 2023. [AFP/YONHAP]

At the international level, Hwang did appear to struggle under former Korea manager Jurgen Klinsmann and faced criticism for his performance in the Asian Cup earlier this year.

During that tournament, he clearly struggled to be the bridge between defense and attack that he’s supposed to be, instead appearing to fumble the ball or give it away more often than he managed to connect.

But that tournament could be an outlier or a result of broader issues within the national team. In the past, Hwang has been praised for his performance at an international level, making the ESPN team of the tournament at the 2019 Asian Cup and being named MVP at the 2019 EAFF Championship.

Hwang In-beom, second from right, scores the first goal in the third game of the 2019 East Asian Football Confederation Football Championship at Asiad Main Stadium in Busan on Dec. 18, 2019. [NEWS1]

Hwang flourished under former manager Paulo Bento — a manager with defensive midfielder experience of his own — with Korean media nicknaming him the “Bento Crown Prince.”

The Portuguese manager’s endorsement took Hwang to Olympiacos, a club Bento had previously managed, although that move did not work out well in the long run.

Hwang will be looking for more stability this year. Wolves, where Korea teammate Hwang Hee-chan already plays, could be a solid move, as could other mid-table options in the Premier League, Bundesliga or Serie A.

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