Mallorca posted a video on the club’s official SNS on the 1st (Korea time), saying, “Lee Kang-in is a member of us.” In the video, Lee Kang-in visited the club’s locker room and greeted his old teammates.
Lee Kang-in visited his former team to watch the 14th round of La Liga in the 2023/24 season between Mallorca and Cardis at the Palma Iberostar Estadio in Mallorca, Spain on April 30. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. 메이저 토토사이트
Entering the stadium wearing glasses, Lee Kang-in watched the match with Majorca striker Vedat Muriki (Mayorka), who was absent due to injury. Lee showed off his fantastic teamwork with Muriki (15 goals), who was the top scorer in his team last season. Wearing glasses and a warm brown cardigan, Lee smiled brightly. Muriki also sat next to Lee in a polo shirt and a charcoal cardigan, looking into the camera.
Lee Kang-in and Muriki were soul mates. It was not much different from the partnership Son Heung-min and Harry Kane showed at Tottenham. Lee Kang-in’s relationship with Muriki is special. After scoring with his cross in the match against Lee Kang-in’s former team Valencia in May, Muriki wrote “My Little Brother!” on his SNS. Most of all, he wrote “brother” in Korean and showed off his affection for Lee Kang-in.
Spain showed a lot of interest in Lee Kang-in’s visit to his former team.
“A special spectator, Lee Kang-in, will visit the stands at home in Majorca,” Marca said the day before the game. “Lee Kang-in, who left for a transfer fee of 22 million euros (about 31.2 billion won), visited his former team for the first time after starting the game against Newcastle the day before.”
“Lee Kang-in is the player who sold the most uniforms in Mallorca’s history. Now it’s the same in PSG,” he said. “Lee Kang-in’s presence in Majorca was huge. Every game was filled with thousands of Korean fans, and the VIP area where you can take pictures with him was overflowing with people. According to the information we have, Lee Kang-in has risen to become the player who sold the most uniforms in PSG, beating Kylian Mbappe.”
In fact, when Lee Kang-in came, the Mallorca club welcomed him through SNS.
The video posted by the club showed Lee Kang-in and Muriki hugging each other and watching the game. In response, fans responded on social media, saying, “Let’s lock up the LEE so it can’t go back,” and “Let’s kidnap her right away.”
Lee Kang-in, who watched the game from the stands with Muriki, later visited the missing locker room where he had spent about two years since 2021. Mallorca players were waiting in the locker room, and the players who had just finished the game welcomed Lee Kang-in by hugging him when he came in.
Lee Kang-in is from Valencia Youth, but it is Mallorca that blossomed his talent. In 2011, when he was 10 years old, he joined Valencia Academy and became the youngest Korean player to debut on the European stage in October 2018 in the first round of the Copa del Rey against CD Evro.
He made his La Liga debut on January 12, 2019 against Real Valladolid and became the youngest Korean player to make his debut in the tournament as a substitute in the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League group stage against Chelsea.
Most of all, in 2019, Lee made the best memories with his older brothers at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland. Under coach Chung Jung-yong, Lee led his team to the finals for the first time in the tournament with his older brothers and achieved the result of being the runner-up. He personally received the attention of the soccer community by winning the Golden Ball (MVP) of the tournament.
Lee Kang-in, who broke all kinds of records and drew attention for his performance in international competitions, failed to establish himself in the Valencia first team. He had a lot of talent in attack, especially in the center, but he was mainly used as a side midfielder and couldn’t fit in.
Due to owner Peter Lim’s arbitrary operation of the club, not only Lee Kang-in but also the team suffered great damage, including a series of managerial changes. In the meantime, Lee Kang-in was reduced to a subject of experimentation by coaches, and in the summer of 2021, he needed to secure a non-EU quarter to recruit Marcos Andre (Brazil), the Balenciaga, and even released Lee Kang-in as an FA.
Lee Kang-in, who grew up for 10 years and was released by the club that made his first-team debut dream come true, found a place to play and chose Mallorca at the end of the transfer market.
In the first season of his transfer, Lee played many games, but his playing time was similar to that of Valencia. As he played 30 La Liga games in the 2021/22 season, he only played for 1,406 minutes. He only scored one goal and two assists on offense and point-to-attack. Up until then, he was good at attacking, but left with regret in defense. He also hit Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid at the time) and was sent off with accumulated warnings.
At the end of the season, as the team struggled in the relegation zone, the team appointed Javier Aguirre to challenge himself to stay. Aguirre recorded two wins and one draw in the last three games of the season, dramatically staying in the top division in 16th place. And Lee Kang-in’s abilities began to grow.
In the 2022/23 season, Lee Kang-in has gained a lot of muscles. As the muscle mass increased, the athletic ability naturally improved, and the activity and defense skills were also developed through the preseason. This was created when Aguirre tailored the team’s basic plan to the 5-4-1 model and conceived a counterattack pattern. Lee Kang-in also needed to participate in the defense and actively covered the same left wingback and opponent.
At the same time, he maximized his ability to dribble and kick left feet in the attack. Notably, he had good teamwork with Muriki. Lee Kang-in’s parcel delivery cross hit the head of Muriki, who is over 190 centimeters tall. The two players were key to the team’s offense, as they accounted for 35 of Mallorca’s 37 goal scored.
In addition, Lee Kang-in was of great help to the marketing of the Mallorca club. Lee Kang-in had many Korean fans visit Mallorca, and the sales of Lee Kang-in uniforms in Mallorca were unprecedented.
Lee Kang-in started to attract attention from many big clubs last season by scoring six goals and six assists in La Liga. Starting with Atletico Madrid, various clubs such as Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Manchester United (England) approached him.
Atletico Madrid weighed Lee Kang-in and Rodrigo Rikelme, a former youth of his team, but chose Rikelme instead of Lee Kang-in. As PSG (France) approached Lee Kang-in, he took a new step, and as a result, he is currently playing in a PSG uniform.
After Lee Kang-in left, Muriki told a local broadcaster in September, “I can’t compare Lee Kang-in to a Mallorca player right now. Because he’s special. A good player I’ve seen is Lee Kang-in. He has talent and potential,” adding, “Everyone confirmed this last season, and he’s in a great team now.”
Lee Kang-in is exuding his presence in PSG as well. Through the pre-season tour for the 2023/24 season, which took place right after his transfer to PSG, Lee confirmed that he is a huge star not only in Korea but also in the Asian market. Lee Kang-in sold a lot of uniforms in Japan. Korea was a natural outcome.
Lee Kang-in proved that he is a good player, not just a marketing player. He has one goal and one assist in six League 1 games this season. He missed six games due to a muscle injury at the beginning of the season and the aftermath of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, but this is the point from the four games he started in all games after his return.
Lee Kang-in, in particular, has displayed a good partnership with Kylian Mbappe, and is working well together. Lee, who is continuing his performance, also showed his loyalty to visiting his former team for the first time by taking some time off. He will take a day off from his visit to his former team and return to his team’s training on the first day of December.