Lee Dong-gook

Being a football star, Lee Dong-gook has led more or less, a flamboyant lifestyle, which involved dating celebrities. After dating Lee Soo-jin, an ex Miss Korea, Lee married her in 2005. The couple had five children in total, two sets of twin daughters and a son.

Lee has been quite a controversial figure publically, and even in his personal life, he has admitted suffering from alcoholism and ‘too much ego’.

Lee Dong-gook was born on 29th April 1979 in Gyeongbuk, South Korea. An athletic kid, he spent hours practicing his soccer skills and with the support from his parents, he kept improving his game. By the time he was in high school, he had grown into a competitive striker and at the age of 15, he got the chance to join Pohang Steelers, a South Korean club. His game further improved post joining the club and at the age of 19, he made his national level football debut as a striker.

Playing in the domestic tournaments for his team Pohang Steelers, Lee exhibited some really good striking skills, where his solid performance got him in the eyes of the national team selectors. This paved way for Lee to join the South Korean U-19 team in 1998 and then the national team in the very same year.

Playing for his national U-19 team, in a major tournament such as AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Cup in 1998, he led his team to a victory. He was one of the key strikers since the very beginning and at a young age of 19, he proved himself to be a player with high possibilities of becoming an international star.

He also managed to secure a place in the South Korean team for the FIFA World Cup 1998 and at the 2000 AFC Asian Cup, where he became the top scorer by the end of the tournament with six goals to his credit.

Lee then was sent on loan to play in the local German league, for the club Werder Bremen, one of the strongest teams in the Germany’s Bundesliga. But sadly enough, his time there was plagued with injuries and hence, he did not get a chance to play too much and after spending six months in Germany, he continued his time with Pohang Steelers back in Korea.

In a shocking turn of events in 2002, he wasn’t selected for the final line-up for the FIFA World Cup that year. The reason mentioned by Guus Hiddink, the coach, was that Lee was a lazy man, who didn’t really care about the game and also said that he did not prepare at all for the biggest football tournament in the world. This, and plus his clumsy lifestyle, which involved alcohol, was also touted as the reason for his ouster from the national team.