PSG’s Lee Kang-in aims to become only second Asian Uefa Champions League winner, could meet fellow South Korean in final
- Newly crowned French champions are heavy favourites against Borussia Dortmund to reach Wembley next month
- Unlike their opponents, they have never won the competition and have reached only one final, back in 2020
Paris Saint-Germain forward Lee Kang-in is aiming to become just the second Asian man to win a Uefa Champions League medal as the South Korea forward prepares for a semi-final against Borussia Dortmund.
The newly crowned French champions are heavy favourites to reach the showpiece at Wembley next month at the expense of the German side, which is languishing in fifth place in the Bundesliga.
But unlike their opponents, PSG have never won the competition – though they have reached one final, back in 2020 – and, after overcoming a first-leg home defeat to Barcelona in the quarter-finals to dump the Catalans out with a 4-1 victory in the return, there is a real positive spirit around the French capital side.
And Lee has been an important member of the squad this campaign, with 31 appearances in all competitions, including eight in the Champions League.
He was signed from Real Mallorca before the start of the campaign for €22 million (HK$185m) to become PSG’s first-ever South Korean player.
And despite arriving alongside three other big-name attacking players in Ousmane Dembele, Marco Asensio and Goncalo Ramos, Lee has forged an important role for himself in Luis Enrique’s squad.
Lee has featured in three of their four knockout games so far, starting the first-leg clash with Barcelona.
Should PSG overcome Dortmund, the 24-year-old could become the first Asian man since Son Heung-min in 2019 to feature in a Champions League final, where his Tottenham Hotspur side were beaten by Liverpool.
Before that, you have to go back to 2011 to find another Asian male player – again a South Korean – in European football’s biggest club match, when Park Ji-sung started Manchester United’s loss to Barcelona at Wembley.
He also featured in the defeat to the same side two years earlier.
However, 12 months prior, Park was left out of the match-day squad for United’s all-English affair against Chelsea in Moscow that they won on a penalty shoot-out.
So despite his omission, the ex-South Korea skipper remains the only Asian man with a Uefa Champions League winners medal.
Lee could face a South Korean derby in the final, with Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-jae also vying for Wembley.
The German side were held to a 2-2 draw by 14-time winners Real Madrid at the Allianz Arena in Bavaria, with Kim guilty of giving away a penalty for Los Blancos’ equaliser.
It leaves the tie on a knife-edge but it also leaves the possibility of two Asian players in a Uefa Champions League final for the first time very much alive.
