Totally missed this loan, and was very surprised to see him in the 18 for Ulsan Hyundai today. He came off the bench in the 80th minute in a 4-0 win.
2nd time's a charm: @bungadiri -- Let's update title, please: Bjorn Johnsen at Ulsan Hyundai (S. Korea)
Here's there all right: #kleague#蔚山現代#울산현대#UHFC【Official】2020 0719R12蔚山現代×江原FC𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙍𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙓𝙄#チョヒョヌ#パクチュホ#DaveBulthuis#チョンスンヒョン#キムテファン#ウォンドゥジェ#ソルヨンウ#シンジンホ#ユンビッカラム#イ・チョンヨン#JuniorNegrao pic.twitter.com/7J4YJHTgw9— Rio (@rioriver_) July 19, 2020 Hurry, before he transfers again: @bungadiri -- Let's update title, please: Bjorn Johnsen at Ulsan Hyundai (S. Korea)
A couple of goals: 🎥 HIGHLIGHT | @gwfc2008 0-3 @ulsanFC Bjørn Johnsen converts from the spot to get his first of the season and increase Ulsan’s lead. #KLeague | #K리그 | #GANvULS pic.twitter.com/vtet7pyuZ2— K League (@kleague) June 16, 2020 🎥 HIGHLIGHT | @FCSEOUL 0-1 @ulsanFC 💥 Bjørn Johnsen gets his second in as many games to give Ulsan the lead in Seoul. #KLeague | #K리그 | #SEOvULS pic.twitter.com/J1Z94EPDcm— K League (@kleague) June 20, 2020
Apparently Ulsan transliterates Bjørn's name as "Bi-yon Jon-sun", as in the English "Johnson", not the Norwegian way? https://www.uhfc.tv/player/player_view.php?player_seq=185
Still playing Jeonbuk beat Ulsan in battle of K League's top two clubs https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200915009800315 "Attacking midfielder Bjorn Johnsen replaced defensive midfielder Won Du-jae for Ulsan in the 70th minute, though the substitution didn't amount to much."
We'd lost track of Bjorn a bit, but he's had a successful end to 2020. Ulsan won the AFC Champions League final 2-1 over Persepolis. He substituted in at the 83rd minute. 🤳 That #ACLFinal winning feeling!🏆 #ACL2020 pic.twitter.com/tmUdxVMgvz— #ACL (@TheAFCCL) December 19, 2020 One journalist picked him to their team of the tourney: Ahead of the #ACLFinal. Here is my #ACL2020 Team Of The Tournament ⚽️Honourable Mentions:Jo Su-huk, Sin Jin-ho, Hossein Kanaani, Hotaru Yamaguchi, Bjorn Johnsen & Kim Min-woo.Who makes your @TheAFCCL XI? pic.twitter.com/xhtj8n7Pmt— Wael Jabir (@waeljabir) December 19, 2020 Played in 9 of 10 matches, most of which were in November & December. Scored 5 goals total with one assist in 444 minutes. Scored the equalizing goal in the 85th minute in the 2-1 ET semifinal win against Vissel Kobe. https://www.transfermarkt.us/bjorn-...50686/saison/2019/wettbewerb/AFCL/verein/3535
Semifinal highlights with Bjorn's goal sequence starting at :33": VAR saved the goal after an initial offsides call.
Scored a brace here at :45 & 1:33: And based on the frozen image above, looks like he has a baby on the way.
He's been a consistently solid to good producer at every top division team. Never had a rate worse than a goal+assist (w/out pk's) each 200 minutes at any of them. And per FBRef's sample, his career average at them is a goal + assist every 142 minutes. Obviously they often weren't among the best leagues - Scotland, Bulgaria, South Korea, Netherlands, Norway - but still you can only perform against who you play. He was at a similar rate w/ Norway's national team too fwiw (4 goals in 718 minutes). On some of these teams he was reduced to a rotational player or super sub for whatever reason. AZ is the best club he was at, & he was actually actually their most productive player, among qualifiers, on a per minute basis. I do think he could have had a role with the US national team & wonder if it's about time to come home to play professionally.
A desperate voice cries into the wind: @bungadiri -- Let's update title, please: Bjorn Johnsen at Ulsan Hyundai (S. Korea)
If his dad still lives in Raleigh (I have no idea), then maybe when Charlotte's MLS team starts playing.
He'd be a really nice pickup for someone like Austin. I wonder, though, if that's what he'd want, going back to the US. He doesn't seem to go back. Dude has lived and played in Norway, Holland, Scotland, Portugal before Korea. It's a pretty good lifetime of exploration, and he's 29. I could see him being more attracted in his next move to the A-League. My Dad, in his last years as a prof at a Big Ten uni, was advising athletes, and had this basketball player who tall enough that he was good enough to hang around near the bottom of a series of rosters in the NBA. But he was a total history fanatic and would talk about what he really wanted, a career that would take him through Istanbul and Jerusalem and Cairo and Barcelona, etc, which he want he ended up doing. He made less money, but he had a better life. Of course, in this case, he's making as much money as he would in MLS.
The MLS reference is interesting in that guy's context. An NBA fringe player who goes on to play for Barcelona, one of the Maccabis or Fenerbache is like a footballer who turns down the likes of Watford or Augsburg for an MLS contract: he'll still make 500k-one million while experiencing a new culture and lifetsyle. Your father's student saw the world, learned a few languages, saved a million or two and, through his teams' press offices, would have met a string of eminent historians, writers and journalists in the countries where he played. Sounds like heaven. I've never met the guy - hell, I don't even know his name - and I hate his guts.
Interview: https://sportsgazette.co.uk/big-bjorn-norweigan-nomad/ Unfortunately for Johnsen his move has not quite gone to plan… yet. He has only managed to start a handful of games for his new side and currently is playing understudy to Júnior Negrão. The Brazilian striker is in the form of his life, scoring 22 goals in just 19 games and has kept Johnsen out of the starting eleven. Before signing for Ulsan, Johnsen was under the impression Júnior would no longer be at the club and that he was coming in as the main striker. Júnior’s move fell through and with coach Kim Do-hoon sticking to a lone frontman Johnsen’s game time has been significantly less than he hoped for. And in order to keep himself in the Norwegian international setup Johnsen knows he needs to be starting games and scoring goals.