 Ji Dong-won celebrates after he assisted Koo Ja-cheol’s game winner for a 2-1 win in a friendly against Ghana at Jeonju World Cup Stadium, Tuesday. Ji is close to transferring to Sunderland, which finished 10th last season in the English Premier League. / Yonhap |
By Yoon Chul
National team forward Ji Dong-won of Chunnam Dragons is close to heading to the English Premier League (EPL) by being transferred to Sunderland.
Chunnam Dragons officials said that they decided to release him to move to Sunderland, Thursday.
The disclosed transfer fee is likely to be between $1 million to $1.3 million (1.6 billion won) and his annual salary will be about $700,000 (900 million won).
If the deal between the Dragons and Sunderland is confirmed, Ji is the eighth Korean footballer as well as the youngest Korean playing in England’s top football league.
“I hope to survive in the EPL as long as I can play like Park Ji-sung and I also want to be the ace of the team like Lee Chung-yong,” Ji said.
Ji’s contract with Chunnam expires after 2013 but the buyout rule was installed when the then university player signed with the club in 2010.
According to the buyout rule if some amount of transfer fee is reached Ji can move to another team without the team’s consent and the least amount of transfer fee for Ji was $750,000.
As Ji is the first successful player from Chunnam’s youth program, the team wanted Ji, who has played for Chunnam for only one season.
In addition the team expected to get a larger transfer fee because he is the club’s best player.
Compared to other Korean overseas players such as Lee of Bolton and Ki Sung-yueng of Celtic, the transfer fee and salary is very low.
When Lee headed to Bolton in 2009 the transfer fee was 2 million pounds (4.4 billion won) and Ki’s transfer fee for Celtic was 2 million euros (3.5 billion won).
The team tried to persuade Ji but the young Korean potential’s mind was already on board to go to England.
The 20-year-old forward is the product of the Dragons’ youth program. He made his debut in the K-League last season and scored eight goals with four assists.
The young national team forward also helped Korea net six times in 11 appearances.
As Ji performed well in the Asian Cup in Qatar in January the British club started showing its interest.
Sunderland has Ghana national team striker Asamoah Gyan.
As Sunderland lost their reliable forward Darren Bent who transferred to Aston Villa, Danny Welbeck, who returned to Manchester United upon finishing his loan, and Fraizer Campbell by injury it looked for forwards and found cheap and potential forwards in the Asian Cup.
Ji, however, needs to improve in some areas to finish a successful season in the British club.
First of all Ji needs to strengthen his stamina and power in order to endure in the toughest league.
The 1.87-meter Korean often appeared exhausted in the second half.
The national team manager also mentioned that in order to gain distinction in England Ji had to improve his stamina.
“He is tall, fast and smart. He can play well in Europe if Ji can show more endurance,” Cho said.
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