K League striker Lee Dong-guk achieves 300 attack point milestone

Lee Dong-guk scored his first goal as “high school graduate rookie” on March 31, 1998 when he started playing for FC Pohang after graduating from POSCO Technical High School. It happened 10 days after the opening of the league. His team secured a 3-1 win against a team none other than FC Jeonbuk at the time. Twenty-two seasons have passed since. The record scorer, who has turned 40 this year, has spent 11 seasons, or half of his professional soccer career, with Jeonbuk, and has grown to become the flagship icon of Korean professional soccer. He has scored his 223rd career goal at a Saturday K League game, 7,780th day since scoring his first career goal in the league, and achieved the milestone of the 300th attack point (including goals and assists) for the first time in the league’s history.

FC Jeonbuk held the final A2 round match of the K League 1 against FC Seoul at Jeonju World Cup Stadium on the day. The former was trailing 0-1 when Lee Dong-guk was fielded as substitute at 19th minute in the first half. Lee scored a surprising equalizer at 39th minute in the second half when the match continued a monotonous race without having additional scores. Moon Sun-min kicked a long-distance pass from the middle field towards FC Seoul’s goal, leaving players of both teams scrambling for the ball, and Lee snatched it and kicked a powerful shot with his left foot. The ball crossed slightly over the hands of FC Seoul’s goalie to robustly hit the upper center of the net.

The 300 attack point milestone set by Lee will likely be quite difficult to break for some time. Dejan Damjanovic (38) of FC Suwon, has only 234, lagging far behind Lee. Lee already surpassed the career 200-goal mark for the first time and thus opened a new chapter in the history of Korean pro soccer. Dejan, who is ranked second in the rankings of overall career goals with 189 goals, is lagging far behind Lee.


Won-Joo Lee takeoff@donga.com