Aston Villa, Newcastle among teams linked to Lee Kang-in

Lee Kang-in [YONHAP]

Lee Kang-in appears to be the Korean football in vogue this winter, with clubs from across Europe reportedly lining up to try and sign the 21-year-old Mallorca midfielder.

Lee, a regular starter for the La Liga club and an increasingly key member of the Korean national squad, has so far been linked to Premier League clubs Aston Villa and Newcastle, Championship side Burnley and Dutch club Feyenoord.

The interest in the young Korean is not especially surprising.

Lee joined Mallorca last year after a decade in Valencia and has been having a particularly good season, scoring two goals and picking up three assists so far and earning a player of the month nomination along the way.

Lee has established himself an especially effective playmaker, using fancy footwork to beat defenders and his impressive accuracy to get the ball up to the front.

That skill was on display in Qatar, where he very quickly made a name for himself, appearing in all four games and making a mark in his World Cup debut against Uruguay, when Lee and Cho Gue-sung came on as late substitutes and immediately breathed new life into a flagging team.

Against Ghana, Lee came on in the 57th minute and within less than a minute he had driven a beautiful cross into the box for Cho to head home.

That one-minute assist likely turned more than a few heads in Europe’s big five leagues, where attention has already been on the young midfielder. It also earned Lee a spot on the list of youngest assist providers at the Qatar World Cup, coming in as the fourth youngest.

Lee reportedly has a 17-million-euro ($18 million) release clause, a fee that ought to be fairly easy for major clubs to meet if the interest is there.

Lee has only ever played for two clubs, both in Spain. He has long been a fan favorite back home, where he has been seen as the future of Korean football since starring on TV show “Fly Shoot Dori” at just six years old.

He moved to Valencia a few years after that appearance and spent 10 years in the academy before being dropped last year and moving to Mallorca.

Lee joined Valencia in 2011 and made the move up to the A team in 2018. In the 2020-21 season, Lee made 27 appearances for the club, many of them from the bench, but scored only one goal. But his failure to establish himself at the club was seen as more of a case of untapped potential than a lack of skill, and the team was slated in the Spanish press for failing to use him to his full potential.

Lee has two goals and four assists in La Liga this year, last scoring on Oct. 22 in a game against his old club.

The European transfer window is open for the month of January, leaving teams with a few more weeks to reach a deal if they want to sign Lee.

In the meantime, Lee and the Mallorca squad beat Valladolid 1-0 in La Liga on Sunday, and will be back in action next Saturday as they take on Osasuna.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]