Mo Barrow Sold To South Korean Champions

This elongated 2019/20 season may not quite be over yet, but Reading have made their first sale of the summer, with Mo Barrow departing to join South Korean champions Jeonbuk Hyundai.

The winger has spent the campaign on loan at Turkish side Denizlispor, scoring three goals in 24 appearances before leaving the club unannounced at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to join his family back in Gambia.

Barrow joined Reading in the summer of 2017 from Swansea City, and finished as the joint top scorer in his debut season with 10 goals. He was slightly less clinical the following year, but still registered one of the best attacking contributions in the team with four goals and six assists, including vital strikes against Ipswich Town and Wigan Athletic as the club fought relegation. The 27-year-old’s pace down the flank was always a considerable asset to the Royals team, but when Jose Gomes pursued a ‘no wingers’ strategy last summer, he was allowed to leave on loan. In total, he made 83 appearances for Reading, scoring 14 goals - in fact the club only lost one game that he scored in.

After Saturday’s defeat to Blackburn Rovers, Mark Bowen hinted that there would be a high turnover of players this summer, and Barrow’s future at the club has looked bleak for some time now.

With his contract expiring in 2021, Reading will have wanted to recoup some of the £1.5 million transfer fee they reportedly paid for him three years ago. It seems they may have done just that, as according to Gambian newspaper Foroyaa, Jeonbuk Hyundai will pay just under £1.4 million for Barrow. BerkshireLive’s Jonathan Low had previously reported that the club valued Barrow at around £2 million, and had rejected an offer of £500,000 from an unnamed Asian club earlier this year. It is also likely that Barrow was one of the highest earners at Reading, having been signed from a Premier League club during Ron Gourlay’s spell as CEO.