Minnesota United again pursuing South Korean forward Hwang Ui-Jo

Andy Greder, Pioneer Press
Updated ·2 min read
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Minnesota United is taking another run at South Korean forward Hwang Ui-Jo.

International soccer reporter Fabrizio Romano said Thursday that MNUFC has made an official proposal to Ui-Jo’s club Nottingham Forest of the English Premier League. Forest paid a transfer fee of $3.6 million for the 30-year-old last year and then loaned him out to Greek club Olympiakos. That loan will be terminated, Romano said.

The Loons went “quite a ways down the line with him” last summer, Loons technical director Mark Watson shared with the Pioneer Press before that transfer window closed. “His situation was really complicated.”

Ui-Jo’s previous club, Bordeaux, had been relegated from France’s Ligue 1 to Ligue 2, and financial issues were pushing them to the third division. The club ended up staying in Ligue 2, but that uncertainty was happening when MNUFC was making decisions on a new forward last summer. MLS reporter Tom Bogert said Minnesota’s offer of $5 million to Bordeaux was turned down.

“We have a lot of discussions,” Watson said. “The one thing is we’ve got a ton of names on our list. You don’t really know what the deal is until you get down the line a little bit.”

The Loons ended up adding attacker Mender Garcia from Once Caldas in Colombia. He scored one goal in 532 MLS minutes last season and is in training camp in Blaine this week.

Ui-Jo did not score in 144 minutes for Olympiacos; he scored 11 goals in 2,508 minutes for Bordeaux in 2021-22.

Ui-Jo also played in all four of South Korea’s games at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Minnesota will have intra-league competition for Ui-Jo, with Los Angeles FC, Portland Timbers, Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps also “concretely interested,” Romano said. Another report said Atlanta United has made a bid. It’s unclear which MLS club holds Ui-Jo’s discovery rights.

The Loons do hold the discovery rights for Cho Gue-Sung, a 25-year-old South Korean who Minnesota has been pursuing this month. The Loons reportedly have made a $5 million offer to Korean club Jeonbuk, with Scottish club Celtic and German club Mainz also making offers. Playing in Europe has appealed to Cho, but Minnesota’s offer is the richest.

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