Opinion

Domestic exploits of Lee and Miura show the way for Australia

It was fitting that Lee Dong-gook scored the goal, an opportunistic near post header, seen around the world last Friday.

Millions of football-hungry fans tuned into see the K League curtain raiser and the Lion King win the game for Jeonbuk Motors against Suwon Bluewings.

It was a game with Australian interest thanks to Suwon’s Adam Taggart and Terry Antonis but there was something else that should give food for thought down under.

Lee is a genuine legend in South Korea. He is a household name and recognised by the majority of people in the country, regardless of their interest in football in general or the league specifically. The reason he is a legend is because of what he has done in South Korea.

It gives some encouragement for the A-League. Stardom does not have to depend on European experience.

Players can forge big reputations through hundreds of games at home. If Lee can do this in South Korea then there is no reason why an Australian player with little to no time in the big leagues still turn heads when he walks down a Sydney or Melbourne street.

It makes it harder when a look at the last Socceroo squad that was in action in FIFA World Cup qualification last November shows that just four players from the A-League made the trip to Jordan and just one started.

And the salary cap makes it difficult for clubs in Australia to keep hold of their talent.

Lee has been paid very well in Korea over the years but that is because he has been so successful. He has scored more goals than any other player in the 37 year history of the league. He has also scored more goals than anyone else in the AFC Champions League.

A few months ago, Lee Chung-yong returned to Korea after more than a decade in Europe and Premier League spells with Bolton and Crystal Palace. The winger did so well that he was close to a Liverpool move before a 2011 broken leg put paid to dreams of Anfield.

He also played at more World Cups than his namesake who did not even have the benefit of being part of the historic Korean team that reached the last four in 2002. Yet of the two Lees, Dong-gook is now a bigger figure back home.

True, Lee Dong-gook did have a spell in Europe but while he is remembered in England for a short and not-very-sweet spell with Middlesbrough that took place in 2007 when he failed to score a single league goal, that time has become almost forgotten in Korea. It is his exploits at home that have made him a big star.

It is his century-plus appearances for the national team and his household status took on a more literal slant when he and his family became the focus of a television reality show.

Having five young children - including two sets of female twins - is a handful for anyone (and coming home from training to see new boots doodled on does not relieve stress) but in a country with one of the lowest birthrates in the world, it is worthy of note.

Lee, at 41, is a spring chicken compared to Kazuyoshi Miura. The 53-year-old Japanese star, who enjoyed a memorable cameo with Sydney FC in their early days, also has time abroad, especially as a teenager in Brazil, but has played the vast majority of his career at home.

Miura is a legend because of his domestic exploits as well as his fantastic goal return with the Samurai Blue - and a return of 55 goals in 89 games that may never be bettered.

‘King Kazu' is perhaps best known around the world for the simple but amazing fact that he is still playing for Yokohama FC, albeit not very often, in his fifties. Back in the day at home, however, he was sensational.

In the first half of the nineties, his run of form and trophies was special and had he been starting out two decades later would have been seen and lauded around the world. As it was, it cemented his status at home as a superstar.

It goes to show that you don’t have to go to - or spend any kind of serious time in - Europe if you want to be a legend in South Korea and Japan. Lee Dong-gook and Kazu Miura have shown that stars can be forged at home.


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5 min read
Published 13 May 2020 11:02am
By John Duerden

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