Better late than never: Ryu Seung-Woo, a youth phenom for Korea during last summer’s U20 World Cup, just entered into a one year loan from Jeju United to Bayer Leverkusen effective in January. A number of sources confirmed this, including at Sportal.de – he will join Son Heung-Min who joined the Bundesliga outfit last summer.
Ryu was on track to join Borussia Dortmund in late July, but mysteriously declined last summer, citing that he wasn’t ready. What may have been the factor behind the decision may have been the K-League ruling affecting draft status of unattached players planning to move abroad. As Jae mentioned in a previous post comment: “I suspect that this was a pre-planned move by Ryu and Jeju. That he would sign with the club (Bayer Leverkusen) so he avoids the domestic five-year ban, but then would immediately go to Europe. I can’t imagine Jeju, who ended up in the relegation half last season, would be willing to let their prize signing go without having played a single game for them.”
So instead of BVB, Ryu eventually makes it to Germany, but this time on a different club with a fellow Korean on board. The Tavern owner is wondering outloud: did the fact that Son Heung-Min, already playing for Bayer Leverkusen, had a part to play in getting this deal worked out? Or indirectly, did his presence help seal this deal?
UPDATE: according to Arirang news, Ryu, who just arrived to Jeju after the K-League draft was held, is set to arrive in Germany on Monday. The report goes on to state, “Jeju was reluctant to let him go, but acknowledged that he’s likely to improve drastically in Leverkusen, especially with Son there to help him adjust.” The article links up to their televised report on the loan deal announcement. They also briefly mentioned Ji So-Yeon who is headed to Chelsea’s Women’s team -transferring from INAC Kobe Leonessa. We missed that news announcement previously, but that deserves it’s own post- more on that shortly (including news on her goal against Chelsea in an international tournament and a goal in an Empress Cup quarterfinal).
UPDATE: according to Bild, Bayer Leverkusen may consider loaning Ryu so that he could get some playing time as he adjusts to European football. The 19 year old Jeju United striker is starting his 1 year loan to Leverkusen and is expected to arrive later today to join up with the squad in training. Speculation is that he may not see any minutes with the first squad, especially right away, but could get some valuable playing experience at another club in the meantime.
Meanwhile games in Europe are underway. The Tavern will update as we get more information. Here’s a clip of Ryu in action at last summer’s World Cup that got managers and scouts attention:
Nicklas Bendtner scored a goal for Arsenal against Man City but it was disallowed for offside.
I saw that – the rehabilitation of Bendtner -and his image as well. I know what Wenger said to Korean media about Park Chu-Young…still I can’t help but wonder…
Wenger knows Park needs to play in order to play for Korea at the world cup. Denmark didn’t qualify for the 2014 world cup so Bendtner doesn’t need to keep playing for the world cup. Wenger knows this yet he doesn’t play Park but he still plays Bendtner. I don’t understand this.
There’s not much to understand. I think at this point we should accept that Wenger just does not care that much for Park, personally or professionally. He’s really a massive liability at this point. Park’s professional or personal needs are probably a very, very distant second (and this is probably overstating it) to what’s on Wenger’s mind.
Yeah… a coach for the number one ranked team in the Premier League is going to play a guy so that he can play in the World Cup… How does that make sense? Coaches choose their player to play in games for one reason.. to win trophies. If Wenger thinks Park won’t help him win, he’s just not gonna play him.
You guys make it seem as if I don’t do my research. The thing is that I’ve heard many Arsenal fans say that Park is better and should play more than Nicklas Bendtner. One quote from an Arsenal fan I’ve heard from “In the match when Park scored, he quickly picked the ball up and offloaded it several times painlessly, that sort of play is useful to offer something different, reminded me a bit of Rosicky. Bendtner can’t do that and Giroud relies more on flicks. I think he needs to leave Arsenal though.”
Wenger said that Park is training very hard and well in the training so it’s not like Park is doing bad in training.
Bendtner only scored THREE GOALS in the BPL since the 2010-11 season. Park came in I’m willing to bet $100 that if Park received as much chances as Bendtner did, Park would have scored plenty more than Bendtner.
LOL What is with Dortmund and Koreans??
Dortmund wanted JI – NO
Dortmund wanted SON – NOPE
Dortmund wanted RYU – HELL NO
and 2 of the 3 go to Leverkusen.
Well they knew they wouldn’t be featured in the first team very often at Dortmund.
and it wasn’t because Ji didn’t want to leave but it was because Di Canio (when he was still coach of Sunderland) didn’t want to sell Ji because Di Canio thought Ji would be a very important striker for Sunderland during this season.
I think the KFA should buy Arsenal FC and force Wenger to play Park. If he doesn’t play Park they should fire him and then hire Choi Kang Hee as the new Arsenal manager. Now that would be weird.