Ji Dong-won retires after 16-year career including Sunderland, Dortmund, Mainz and Augsburg | OneFootball

Former Sunderland striker Ji Dong-won has retired from professional football at 35, drawing a 16-year senior career to a close.

The South Korean said in an Instagram post that he was ending the journey he began in 2010, thanking supporters and looking ahead to life beyond playing, after departing A-League club Macarthur at the end of last season.

Ji started at Jeonnam Dragons in 2010 after time training with Reading through a Korea Football Association programme. Sunderland signed him in June 2011 for a fee reported to be above £1 million. He made 24 Premier League appearances and scored twice, both in his first season.

On New Year’s Day 2012 he rounded Joe Hart and struck a stoppage-time winner as Martin O’Neill’s Sunderland beat eventual champions Manchester City 1-0 at the Stadium of Light. His other goal came in a 2-1 home defeat by Chelsea in September 2011 after coming off the bench.

Opportunities narrowed following Steve Bruce’s departure, and he joined Augsburg on loan in January 2013, scoring five Bundesliga goals to help them stay up. Sunderland sold him to Augsburg in January 2014 before a pre-arranged summer move to Borussia Dortmund. Further spells followed with Darmstadt 98, Mainz 05, Eintracht Braunschweig, FC Seoul, Suwon FC and Macarthur in 2025.

Ji won 55 caps for South Korea and scored 11 goals. He played at the 2014 World Cup and took bronze at London 2012, netting in the quarter-final victory over Great Britain.

Source: Sunderland Echo

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