Hyeokkyu Kwon has joined the Hibees on a season-long loan from Celtic!

The 23-year-old joined Celtic in the summer of 2023 – penning a five-year deal before spending the second half of the 2023/24 campaign on loan at fellow Scottish Premiership side, St Mirren.

Born in the South Korean city, Busan, the midfielder came through the youth ranks at Busan I-Park before making his K-League 2 debut in September 2019 at the age of 18. Kwon was part of the squad that earned promotion back to the Korean top-flight.

The following season, the midfielder made his breakthrough into the First Team – totalling 17 appearances and scoring one goal.

The energetic midfielder went on to spend the next two seasons with fellow Korean side Gimcheon Sangmu, featuring predominantly as a defensive midfielder, breaking up the play in the middle of the pitch. Kwon featured 36 times across two seasons before returning to Busan for 2022/23 and adding another two goals to his tally.

In the summer of 2023, Kwon moved across the continent agreeing a five-year deal with Celtic under Brendan Rodgers.

He was named on the bench several times in the first half of the season, before securing a loan move to St Mirren in January 2024 in a search for more regular game time.

He made his debut in the Scottish Cup, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1-0 victory for St Mirren over Queen of the South. The 6 ft 3’ midfielder made nine appearances in total for the Buddies and was a popular figure among the supporters, helping St Mirren to a fifth-place finish and securing European football for the first time in 37 years for the Paisley club.

On the international front, Hyeokkyu Kwon has represented South Korea from under-14 level all the way up to under-23s.

Kwon played a key role in South Korea’s qualification campaign for the Under-23 Asian Cup, before representing his country in three matches during the tournament finals in Uzbekistan in 2022.