The present and future of Korean football. ‘Ace’ Lee Kang-in (Mallorca, 22) scored his 6th goal in the Spanish professional football Primera Liga (La Liga). For the first time since advancing to La Liga, he achieved double-digit attack points in a season. It is the first Korean player.
Lee Kang-in started in the 2022-2023 La Liga Round 32 Athletic Bilbao home game held at Estadi Mallorca Sonmo City in Mallorca, Spain on the 2nd and scored the opening goal in the 13th minute of the second half. The team unfortunately conceded a goal at the end of the second half and drew 1-1. Mallorca (11 wins, 8 draws, 13 losses, 41 points), which added only 1 point, was in 12th place in the league, and Bilbao (13 wins, 8 draws, 11 losses, 47 points) ranked 7th.
Lee Kang-in, who drove the ball up from the half-line, supplied a forward pass to the side and ran to the penalty box. Amas Ndiaye then passed a cross to Vedat Muriki in front of the goal, and Lee Kang-in finished the ball with a calm left-footed shot from Muriki, shaking the net. Lee Kang-in was replaced by Antonio Sanchez in the 40th minute of the second half. Then Mallorca collapsed. Mallorca failed to keep Lee Kang-in’s goal and scored the tying goal with a penalty kick to Inaki Williams just before the end, making it 1-1.메이저놀이터
This day’s score was Lee Kang-in’s 6th in the league this season. Lee Kang-in, who scored his first multi-goal in the league after his debut against Getafe just before, showed an upward trend of 3 goals in 3 recent matches. With 6 goals and 4 assists this season, he also wrote double-digit attack points for the first time since entering La Liga. Lee Kang-in is the first Korean player to make more than 10 offensive points in one season in La Liga. There have been many players who have played in La Liga, such as Lee Chun-soo, who played for Real Sociedad, and Park Joo-young (Ulsan), who played for Celta Vigo, but none have stood out like Lee Kang-in.
Lee Kang-in, who was in charge of not only scoring but also the development of attacks such as unique pressure relief, received the highest evaluation among both teams. Whoscored.com, a soccer statistics site, gave Lee Kang-in a high rating of 8.42. Lee Kang-in attempted to break through the dribble 6 times and succeeded in all of them, and won 11 out of 15 ground competitions.
Lee Kang-in, who is performing brilliantly this season, was also named among the 18 candidates for ‘Midfielder of the Year’ by La Liga. On this day, the La Liga Secretariat unveiled 47 candidates for the 2022-2023 season’Team of the Year’ through social media. Among them, there are 11 strikers, 13 defenders, 18 midfielders and 5 goalkeepers, respectively. Lee Kang-in was included in the midfield category along with legends such as Luka Modric and Toni Kroos (Real Madrid).