Wolves and Crystal Palace take first step towards transfer of €5.5m star familiar to Man City

Wolves were reportedly in attendance at the Serbia Cup semi-final between Red Star Belgrade and Partizan Belgrade on Wednesday night. 

The same night that Gary O’Neil oversaw a 1-0 defeat to former club Bournemouth, club representatives were said to be taking a game in the Balkans. Hwang Hee-chan who saw a goal disallowed could soon be reunited with one of his compatriots. 

Reports in South Korea and in Serbia, more specifically from journalist Choi Byung-jin claim that Wolves would be watching over Hwang In-beom along with their Premier League rival Crystal Palace. The 27-year-old is on the books of Red Star Belgrade, known locally as FK Crvena zvezda, and he played the entire match as they defeated Partizan 2-0 to progress to the final.

He is a centre midfielder by trade and has been capped 56 times for South Korea, scoring six goals. In-beom moved to Serbia from Olympiacos for a reported £4.72m last summer and this season has five goals and five assists in 30 games.

For 38 of In-beom’s 56 caps, he has played alongside Wolves star Hee-chan   Hwang. The pair have combined once for a goal and won the Asian Games together in 2019.

Red Star is In-beom’s third club in Europe. He began in South Korea with Daejon Citizen before a spell in the MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps. Rubin Kazan signed him in 2020 and he played there for a season-and-a-half before a brief return to South Korea with FC Seoul. He spent one season at Olympiacos, owned by Nottingham Forest chief Evangelos Marinakis. His return in Greece was five goals and four assists in 40 games. 

In-beom has already played in England having played for Belgrade in the Champions League against Manchester City. He said it wasn’t easy to keep the ball against the Citizens and found the atmosphere noisy. The South Korean midfielder was on target in a 3-2 defeat to Man City at the Red Star Stadium back in December.