Footballer Kwon Kyung-won to join Chinese Super League club

By Baek Byung-yeul

Kwon Kyung-won

Korean midfielder Kwon Kyung-won has become the newest addition to a Chinese Super League club with the second-highest transfer fee in Korean football history.

A Chinese news outlet reported on Monday, Kwon, who played for Arabian Gulf League champion Al Ahli, has signed a five-year deal worth $15 million with Tianjin Quanjian. The report said the Chinese club paid the Arabian Gulf League champion club $11 million as a transfer fee, the second-highest amount for a Korean footballer following Son Heung-min, who transferred from Bayer Leverkusen to Tottenham Hotspur in 2015 in a deal reportedly worth 30 million euros.

Making his professional football debut with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in 2013, the 24-year-old footballer moved to Al Ahli in 2015 and appeared to have a bright future ahead of him after being picked as one of the 11 best players of the year in the AFC Champions League.

Tianjin is a newly promoted club led by Italian football legend Fabio Cannavaro.