TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Signing
Minnesota United FC have gone overseas to boost their attack, announcing Wednesday they've signed forward Sang Bin Jeong from English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The 20-year-old South Korean international arrives as a U22 Initiative signing in a deal that lasts through the 2025 MLS season with an option for 2026.
A product of K League 1 side Suwon Samsung Bluewings, Jeong was signed by Wolves last year and immediately got loaned to Grasshoppers of Switzerland. He scored two goals during the 2022-23 Swiss Super League season.
"When you call Sang Bin Jeong ‘dynamic’ you’ve hit the nail on the head. We first spotted him in 2019 playing for the Korean U-17 national team and we’ve tracked him ever since," Minnesota head coach Adrian Heath said in a release.
"Twenty years of age, incredibly athletic, incredibly quick and hard-working. He’s really intelligent, has a great football brain and can provide explosiveness in attack – so when you go down the list, he really ticks all the boxes in the type of young and dynamic player we are after."
Jeong is the sixth-ever South Korean to play in Major League Soccer – the last was defender Kim Moon-hwan at LAFC – while also becoming Minnesota's second-ever U22 Initiative signing, following the footsteps of fellow forward Bongokuhle Hlongwane.
Most notably, Minnesota's attacking corps also includes Paraguayan striker Luis Amarilla and Colombian striker Mender García. However, Minnesota remain without star playmaker Emanuel Reynoso, who's currently suspended without pay for failing to report to preseason. In Reynoso's absence, Robin Lod has slid into the Loons' No. 10 role.
Current Inter Miami CF striker Leo Campana also took the Wolves-to-Grasshoppers loan pathway before joining the Herons ahead of the 2022 MLS season. FC Cincinnati also have center back Yerson Mosquera on loan from the EPL club, while midfielder Connor Ronan went from Wolves to the Colorado Rapids this winter, the same route Jack Price navigated ahead of the 2018 season.
Minnesota are fifth in the Western Conference standings, going 2W-0L-1D through Matchday 4.
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