Wolves to face Celtic and AS Roma in South Korea

It was confirmed earlier this year that Julen Lopetegui's men will head to Asia for their pre-season tour ahead of the 2023/24 campaign.

Now it has been announced that Lopetegui's side will take part in two friendlies.

The first will be against Celtic in the Suwon WC Stadium on July 26.

Three days later, they will face AS Roma on July 29 in the Incheon Asiad Stadium.

Back in March, the Express & Star reported that talks for Wolves to travel to South Korea were well underway.

It will mark their first return to Asia since their trip to China in 2019, where Wolves beat Manchester City on penalties to lift the Asia Trophy.

The trip will also give Wolves another opportunity to widen their worldwide reach, as they continue to embark on marketing missions to build the club’s brand.

Since Chinese conglomerate Fosun bought Wolves in 2016, they have made conscious efforts to improve the club’s worldwide standing across several different markets, with Asia being a key focus.

This planned trip in the summer will aid those efforts, with Wolves forward Hwang Hee-chan leading the way in their marketing plans for South Korea.

Wolves are also hoping to go on another separate warm weather training camp to Europe earlier in July before they travel to Asia.

The club will be hopeful of completing the deal in the coming weeks, after suffering bad luck with their planned trip to America last summer.

Wolves had signed up to compete in the four-team Ohio Cup before the tournament was cancelled in mid-May.

The club then persevered with planning a trip to America but were unable to find viable friendly replacements and were forced to scrap the trip.

Wolves then had to make late arrangements to travel to Europe, with trips to Spain and Portugal coming in July.

That America tour would also have aided Wolves’ marketing mission as they continue to make progress across the pond, which is why the club are eager to tie up the details for their South Korea trip quickly – as well as giving fans as much notice as possible to make their own arrangements.

Wolves did also consider a tour of America this summer before finally deciding on South Korea.