Hwang Ui-jo leaves Forest for Turkey, this time for good

Football

Hwang Ui-jo leaves Forest for Turkey, this time for good

Published: 08 Sep. 2024, 13:26 Updated: 08 Sep. 2024, 15:40

PAIK JI-HWAN
paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr

JIM BULLEY
jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr

A picture of Hwang Ui-jo shared on Alanyaspor's official Instagram account on Friday [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korean forward Hwang Ui-jo has rejoined Turkish team Alanyaspor on a one-year deal, the club announced Friday. The club did not disclose the transfer fee in a statement on its website.

The move comes after Hwang played for Alanyaspor on loan in the second half of the 2023-24 season and failed to play a single minute upon his return to Premier League side Nottingham Forest so far this campaign.

Alanyaspor is a club based in the southern Turkish city of Alanya and currently sits in 16th place on the 20-team Super Lig table as of press time Sunday.

The club finished in eighth place last season, during which Hwang picked up one goal and one assist in eight Super Lig matches.

The return to Turkey marks the latest twist in what has also been a tumultuous few years for the 32-year-old, who went from top scorer at a Ligue 1 club to persona non grata in the Greek Super League in the space of a year, then pivoted to the K League before getting called back to warm Forest’s bench last summer.

After a successful career in Korea and Japan, Hwang, a traditional out-in-front forward, moved to Europe with French club Bordeaux in 2019, becoming the club’s top scorer in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns. He was considered a top prospect in the French league at the time, with the official Ligue 1 website repeatedly highlighting him as a player to watch in the transfer market.

But cash-strapped Bordeaux held on until it was too late, refusing to consider a deal until the summer of 2022, when the club crashed into financial administration and faced the threat of double relegation.

Forest, who were in the middle of one of the biggest shopping sprees in European football history at the time, snapped Hwang up and immediately loaned him out to Greek club Olympiacos.

Hwang, in the middle of a difficult slump, struggled to adapt to the Super League club and ended up relegated to the bench and, ultimately, out of the squad completely. That loan ended in January last year when Forest instead shipped him off to FC Seoul.

Back in the K League, Hwang began to find his feet again, scoring four goals and four assists in 18 appearances and again finding the back of the net for the national team — where he has 62 caps — as well.

Hwang was called back to Nottingham last summer, but was loaned out to Championship side Norwich City where he scored three goals in 17 matches.

Norwich, however, ended the loan deal seventh months early and sent him back to Forest in January.

But without recording a single minute on the pitch, Nottingham loaned him out to Alanyaspor in February. The permanent move back to the Turkish side blows his chance to make his Premier League debut with Nottingham.

Hwang has also not played for the Korean national team as he has been suspended by the team since November last year for the duration of an ongoing investigation into allegations that he illegally filmed sex videos without his partners’ consent.

He was indicted without detention in July, with his first trial set to take place on Oct. 16.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN, JIM BULLEY [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]