Hwang In-beom joins Feyenoord on four-year deal

Korean midfielder Hwang In-beom has joined Dutch team Feyenoord from Red Star Belgrade on a four-year deal, Feyenoord announced Monday.

Feyenoord midfielder Hwang In-beom poses in a photo shared on the club's official Instagram account on Monday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korean midfielder Hwang In-beom has joined Dutch team Feyenoord from Red Star Belgrade on a four-year deal, Feyenoord announced Monday.

"I am very happy to be here," Hwang said in a statement released by Feyenoord on Monday in Dutch and translated into English using Google Translate. "My teammate in Serbia Uros Spajic already told me that I made the right decision to go to Feyenoord. This is the biggest club I have ever played for, a huge club in Europe, so I hope to stay here for a long time.

“I understand that the stadium here is full for every home game, so I am looking forward to showing myself to the fans.”

Feyenoord did not disclose the transfer fee in the statement, but it is reportedly around 10 million euros ($11 million).

Feyenoord are one of the most successful clubs in the Dutch top tier Eredivisie, where the club has won 16 league titles in addition to 14 KNVB Cups and one European Cup — now called the Champions League.

Only Ajax, with 36, and PSV Eindhoven, with 25, have secured more titles than Feyenoord in league history. Feyenoord last won the league in the 2022-23 season and finished as a runner-up in the 2023-24 campaign.

Hwang’s move to the Eredivisie comes one season after the 27-year-old joined Serbian team Red Star, where he won the league and Serbian Cup titles and earned league Player of the Year honors.

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]

Hwang is a classic end-to-end number eight, with as much of a talent for defense as he has for moving the ball up to the pitch. He has been a key midfielder at the Korean national team with 60 caps under his belt.

The transfer to Feyenoord marks another — he would hope, more permanent — stop in a tumultuous career that has seen him ricochet around the globe as both war and pandemic played havoc with his career.

After starting with Daejeon Citizen in Korea in 2015, Hwang started his military service in 2018 with Asan Mugunghwa. That move proved to be short-lived, as Hwang earned a military exemption at the 2018 Asian Games and dropped straight back into the Daejeon squad.

In 2019, Hwang moved to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Major League Soccer league on a two-year deal, but was abruptly traded to Rubin Kazan in the Russian league in 2020.

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.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine, prompting FIFA to permit foreign players to leave the country and eventually to void their contracts.

After weeks of uncertainty, Hwang returned to Korea where he played out the rest of the 2022 season with FC Seoul, making nine appearances during his brief spell with the club. He re-signed with the club in July that year, only to sign with Olympiacos a week later.

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.

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

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.

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.

Despite the interest, Olympiacos dragged their feet on the move for months before suddenly accepting what appeared to be a comparatively low-ball offer from Red Star.

But the move to Serbia panned out. Entering the sometimes intimidating environment of a Serbian football stadium, Hwang managed to quickly rise to the top of the pack, establishing himself as one of the best players in the league and a staunch fan favorite. The club let him go begrudgingly this year, and Hwang is rumored to have persuaded Feyenoord to pay above his release clause to benefit Red Star.

The move to Feyenoord will allow Hwang to continue to compete in the Champions League, where he made his debut with Red Star last season and went on to score against then-defending champions Manchester City.

Hwang will wear the No. 4 at Feyenoord and is expected to make his first appearance for the club against Groningen on Sept. 14 after the international break.

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