West Ham eyeing RB Leipzig’s Hwang Hee-Chan on loan

Nicholas Hughes

Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
2 min read

West Ham eyeing RB Leipzig’s Hwang Hee-Chan on loan — © ProShots

West Ham are one of multiple Premier League clubs believed to be interested in taking Korean striker Hwang Hee-Chan on loan from RB Leipzig, according to Bild.

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While it was always going to be tough to replace Timo Werner, the 24-year-old has had a considerably tough time of it since arriving from RB Salzburg.

He has yet to start in the league, and in fact the one game he has started in all competitions this season was his debut for the club in September, resulting in a goal and an assist in a 3-0 DFB-Pokal win over Nurnberg.

Hwang Hee-Chan’s best bits from Salzburg

Hwang caught the attention of the footballing world during Salzburg’s dazzling performance against Liverpool last season, with the Korean scoring a brilliant goal past Virgil van Dijk at the Kop end.

At the time his teammate, Erling Haaland waxed lyrical of Hwang’s quality after that game.

“Absolutely crazy – he was brilliant today. He’s so important to the team,” he said.

In that brilliant Salzburg side, Hwang played 27 league games last season – 17 of those starts – and registered 11 goals and 12 assists, going at close to one goal contribution every week.

West Ham let Sebastien Haller go to Ajax earlier this month, and the Frenchman has already notched two goals and three assists in four Eredivisie games.

The Hammers have been linked with Sevilla star Youssef En-Nesyri throughout the window – the Moroccan has hit seven goals in four games across January to jump to the top of La Liga’s golden boot race.

Clearly after a replacement for Haller and competition for Michail Antonio, David Moyes could be about to turn his attention to Hwang for the remainder of the season.

Bild have also reported in the past week that Leipzig could look to bring someone back from England if they do offload Hwang, with Liverpool’s Divock Origi and Kelechi Iheanacho of Leicester City set to be on their list, as well as Nice’s Kasper Dolberg.

Having only joined last summer after penning a five-year deal, Hwang’s career at Leipzig is by no means over and a successful loan spell could be exactly what he needs to break back into the side.