By Pearse McLaughlin
Jeong Sang-bin will arrive in Minnesota tomorrow to finalise a deal that will make him a Young Designated Player for Minnesota United FC for the 2023 season. Wolverhampton Wanderers have agreed to send Jeong, who has been on loan at Grasshoppers, to the MLS club on a permanent deal.
Jeong Sang-Bin was born on the 1st of April 2002, stands at 5 ft 9 (175cm) with a lean body type and is diminutive in stature. With his small frame he is lightning quick, very skilful dribbler and has that knack of finding the back of the net and has that versatility to play anywhere across the front line but is predominantly a striker.
Where he made his name was at his first club Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the K-League 1 who currently lie in 10th position just a point off the foot of the table after the first two matchdays. It is fair to say, Suwon Samsung Bluewings are struggling, and it is no coincidence after selling their two top young talents in Jeong Sang-Bin last January to Wolves for a fee of £1 million and Oh Hyeon-Gyu to Celtic FC this January for a fee of £2.5 million.
At Suwon Samsung Bluewings is where he really developed his trade and earned rave reviews and ultimately got that big money move to English Premier League side Wolves. During his breakout year in 2021 for Suwon Samsung Bluewings he amassed 31 games with a terrific output of 6 goals and 2 assists. Great output on his debut season as a professional footballer considering he didn’t manage to get into the squad until matchday 5 of the K-League 1 season where he started and scored in a 3-0 away win at Pohang Steelers.
Jeong Sang-Bin’s underwhelming loan spell at Swiss outfit Grasshoppers is about to come to an end. He only managed 6 games in the second half of the 21/22 season and this season hasn’t got any better and has only amassed 7 appearances. Over the 2 seasons he has only managed 13 games, scoring zero goals and assists and featured in only 323 minutes.
Jeong Sang-Bin has made the breakthrough of playing for his national side at senior level where he has 1 appearance to his name so far where he scored just after five minutes after coming off the bench. He made his debut for South Korea national football team on the 9th of June 2021 in a FIFA World Cup qualifier against Sri Lanka and scored one of the goals in the 5-0 victory.
Minnesota United are reportedly set to sign Jeong Sang-bin from Wolves on a permanent basis. Wolves only signed the youngster last January from K-League 1 outfit Suwon Samsung Bluewings, in what was a low-key window for the club. The MLS club are in ‘advanced talks’ to sign the South Korean attacker. He would be an would be U22 Initiative signing for them so wouldn’t be registered as a designated player.
Jeong Sang-bin's aim at Minnesota United in the MLS is to ultimately earn more playing time to compete for a place in the Korea U-23 squad at the Asian Games this year and the Olympics next year. Despite the Asian Games being a non-FIFA tournament, Minnesota have already agreed to release Jeong if he's selected.
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