[7] Furthermore, he was largely criticised for having tryouts for Premier League club West Bromwich Albion without Ulsan's consent just after recovering from injury in 2008.

[8] Yeom moved to Suwon Samsung Bluewings in 2010 in exchange for defender Lee Jae-sung and additional transfer fee.

[16][17] Yeom returned to Suwon after finishing his alternative service in the middle of the 2013 season, and was re-elected as the team captain in 2014.

[20] On 4 October 2015, Yeom had his 69th, 70th and 71st K League assists against Gwangju FC, breaking Shin Tae-yong's record of 68.

[22] He was a strong candidate for the Most Valuable Player award of the K League Classic by contributing to the most goals in 2015, but lost to winning team's striker Lee Dong-gook.

[31] He also participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup,[32] but he didn't live up to fans' expectations during the competition.

He had been nicknamed the "Oen-bal-ui Masoolsa" (왼발의 마술사, Left-footed Magician) in South Korea before the World Cup, but his nickname "Masoolsa" (Magician) was changed to "Mabsosa" (맙소사; Oh, my god) by disappointed South Korean fans after the 4–1 loss to Argentina.

[33] Nevertheless, Germany's sports magazine kicker evaluated him as the second best South Korean player in the World Cup.

[39] After the 2022 season, Yeom agreed to a one-year contract extension with Suwon Samsung Bluewings as a player-coach, postponing his retirement as a player for one year.