Lee Kang-in named to European team of the week

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Lee Kang-in named to European team of the week

Published: 20 Apr. 2023, 16:23 Updated: 20 Apr. 2023, 18:31

Mallorca´s Lee Kang-in, right, in action against Celta´s Goncalo Paciencia during a La Liga match in Vigo, Spain on April 17. [EPA/YONHAP]

Mallorca midfielder Lee Kang-in’s good form earned him yet another accolade on Tuesday, with statistics accumulator WhoScored.com naming him among the best XI players in Europe for the football week that ended on April 17.

Lee, the fiery 22-year-old whose quick feet have impressed in both La Liga and with the Korean national team this season, made it into the best XI after receiving a 9.1 ranking for the week, putting him among the very best players in Europe’s big five leagues.

Lee played the full 90 minutes of Mallorca’s 1-0 win over Celta Vigo on Monday, earning man of the match honors. According to statistics accumulator Opta, he completed nine successful runs in the game, the most completed by any Mallorca player in a single game since 2009.

Lee’s ability to keep hold of the ball has long been a major factor in his game. In 2021 he completed 10 runs in a game against Celta Vigo while playing for Valencia, and that season the Center for International Sports Research ranked him as the top player under 21 in the big five European leagues for dribble success rate.

An image posted on the official WhoScored.com Twitter page shows the ″Europe's Top 5 Leagues Team of the Week,″ including Mallorca midfielder Lee Kang-in. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

With nine games left in the La Liga season, the focus on Lee is again increasing ahead of the summer transfer window. Mallorca reportedly received multiple offers for Lee in January but refused to entertain them, but the amount of attention expected this summer will be a lot harder to ignore.

Lee joined Mallorca two years ago after a decade in Valencia and has been having a particularly good season, scoring two goals and picking up four 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 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 in 2021 and moving to Mallorca.

The long list of teams reportedly interested in signing Lee this summer includes Premier League sides Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Newcastle and Brighton.

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