In-beom “Engine” Hwang of the national team joins Olympiacos, a famous Greek football club
Enter 2022.07.29 (20:03)
yunhap news
Hwang In-beom (26), the ‘engine’ of the Korean national team and the core of the midfield, has officially joined Olympiacos FC, a prestigious Greek football club.
On the 29th, Olympiacos officially announced the recruitment by posting a photo of Inbeom Hwang wearing a team uniform and signing a contract on their website.
The club, which introduced Hwang In-beom’s career in the national team, also greeted him on the official Instagram with “Welcome to Hwang In-beom’s joining!” in Korean.
Details such as the contract period and salary were not disclosed.
Earlier, Greek sports newspaper Ton Spor reported on the 25th that “It is certain that Hwang In-beom will sign a three-year contract and his annual salary will exceed 1 million euros (regarding 1.34 billion won).”
The newspaper also explained the background for Hwang In-beom’s participation in Olympiacos, saying, “For Hwang In-beom, the possibility of playing in the UCL played an important role in his transfer.”
Olympiacos, who won the top of the Greek First Division (Superliga Elada) 47 times, the most in history, won the league last season and had a chance to qualify for the UCL finals.
However, on the 28th, following losing 0-4 in the second leg of the UCL second qualifying round to Maccabi Haifa, an Israeli professional soccer team, they failed to advance to the finals for the 2022-2023 season, and were pushed back to the third qualifying round of the Europa League.
The third qualifying round of the Europa League is scheduled for early next month, and the Greek Super League, the first division, is scheduled to start on the 20th of next month.
Portuguese coach Pedro Martings, who leads the Korean national team, and coach Paulo Bento, are taking the helm.
Hwang In-beom is the national team’s main midfielder who played in 35 matches of Match A.
As a member of the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Bento, who took the helm of the national team in September of that year, made his debut as an adult representative and has been gaining trust ever since.
Daejeon Citizen (currently Daejeon Hana Citizen), a youth graduate, made his professional debut in Daejeon in 2015.
In 2018, he played for Asan Mugunghwa for military service, and the following year he moved to the Vancouver Whitecaps, an American professional football team, to advance overseas, and in 2020, he entered the European stage through Rubin Kazan, Russia.
Hwang In-beom, who played as a regular in Kazan, obtained temporary free agent status in the followingmath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and returned to the K-League last April following signing a three-month short-term contract with FC Seoul.
This is in accordance with special rules that have allowed FIFA to temporarily leave the league to protect foreign players and coaches playing in Russia.
As FIFA decided to temporarily suspend contracts with foreign players active in Russia and Ukraine until June 2023, Hwang In-beom, who extended his contract with Seoul in the middle of this month, returned to Europe through joining Olympiacos.
Hwang In-beom is the second Korean player to advance to the first division of Greek professional football, following Jang Gyeol-hee (24) from FC Barcelona (Spain).
Gyeol-hee Jang joined Asteras Tripoli FC in July 2017, but the contract was terminated following a year without playing a single first-team match.
[사진 출처 : 연합뉴스]
