When the South Korean men's football team for the AFC Asian Cup tournament was unveiled on Monday, Lee Jeong-hyeop, a virtually unknown forward, was easily the biggest surprise.
Hours after the announcement, the 23-year-old player for the domestic military club Sangju Sangmu said he was taken aback by the news himself.
"I am going to do my best to fulfill my responsibility," Lee said.
Head coach Uli Stielike chose the unproven Lee, who has yet to play in an international match, in favor of veteran forward Park Chu-young, a veteran of three FIFA World Cups with 68 international matches to his credit. Stielike said he wanted to have a new dimension to his offense and said Lee could be his target man on offense. Park has gone six games without a goal for his Saudi Arabian club Al-Shabab and has played his way off the national team.
Sangju Sangmu's roster is made up of conscripted players who do their mandatory military service while playing football. Lee entered the armed forces in January this year and is currently a corporal. He said his status as a serviceman adds to the weight of responsibility he's feeling as a member of the national team, and that he will try not to let his fans down.
Lee is as green as they come. He hadn't even trained with the senior national team until Stielike called him up for the pre-Asian Cup training camp on Jeju Island, in the southern part of the country, last week.
Lee made his debut in the K League Classic with Busan IPark last year and netted just two goals in 27 matches. This year, he appeared in 25 matches and had just four goals. Lee played the full 90 minutes on only two occasions.
When discussing his training camp squad, Stielike said earlier this month that he and his coaches had watched Lee in five matches.
Even though Lee came off the bench and played only about 25 minutes in those matches, Stielike said he still liked Lee's energy and pace.
During the training camp, Lee pounced on the opportunity to make an even stronger impression. The 28-man squad was split into two for an intrasquad match Sunday and Lee scored a goal.
"I wasn't trying to be picked for the team during the camp,"
Lee said. "I just wanted to learn as much as I could and have a good finish, because there were a lot of other good players.
Everyone there worked really hard and that's why I was so surprised that I was selected."
Lee was one of three forwards named to Stielike's team, alongside Cho Young-cheol of Qatar SC and Lee Keun-ho of El Jaish.
Lee Jeong-hyeop said Lee Keun-ho is his role model, having also played for Sangju Sangmu. Lee Keun-ho has scored 19 goals in 70 international matches and also represented South Korea at this year's FIFA World Cup while still with the military club.
"I'd like to be like Lee Keun-ho someday," Lee Jeong-hyeop said of the 2012 AFC Player of the Year. "It's great to be on the same team with him, and I am looking forward to playing with him."
Coaches who have worked with Lee Jeong-hyeop also said they didn't expect him to get the nod for the Asian Cup but added they liked Lee's work ethic.
Park Hang-seo, Lee's current head coach on Sangju Sangmu, noted that the player has "unlimited potential."
"He can cover a lot of ground and has a great focus, which is essential for strikers," Park said. "I've often seen him do extra work on his own after the end of team practices. His biggest strength is that he always finds something he needs to work on and tries to make improvements."
Yoon Sung-hyo, head coach of Busan IPark, the club that drafted Lee in 2010, said Lee was a prototypical diamond in the rough.
Yoon, who said he'd watched Lee since high school, can make a fine target striker thanks to his heading skills and energy.
"He's just a very consistent player who works extremely hard," Yoon added. (Yonhap)
