Lee Ho-jae (; born 14 October 2000) is a South Korean professional footballer, who plays as a center-forward for

Pohang Steelers The Pohang Steelers (Hangul: 포항 스틸러스) are a South Korean professional football club based in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province that compete in the K League 1, the top flight of South Korean football. The Steelers were founded on 1 A ...

Club career

After completing his youth development between New Zealand, with NRFL Premier club Onehunga Sports, and South Korea, where he played for Incheon United while his father Lee Ki-hyung was coaching the first team, Lee entered

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea, established in 1905. The university is included as one of the SKY universities, a popular acronym referring to Korea's three most prestigious universities. The ...

and eventually graduated in 2020. At the start of 2021, Lee officially started his professional football career by joining K League 1 side

. He subsequently made his professional debut on 28 February 2021, when he came in as a substitute for the injured

Alex Grant Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

in the 83rd minute of the 2-1 win against Incheon United. On 28 June of the same year, he also made his debut in the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

, as he replaced Go Young-Joon in the 88th minute of the group stage match against

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regar ...

side Johor Darul Ta'Zim, which ended up in a 4–1 win for Pohang. On 3 October 2021, after coming in as a substitute for

Lee Seung-Mo Lee Seung-mo (; born 30 March 1998) is a South Korean football midfielder and forward who plays for FC Seoul. He won the gold medal with the South Korea national under-23 football team at the 2018 Asian Games. Club career Lee started his car ...

in the 76th minute of a league match against

Gwangju FC Gwangju FC (Korean: 광주 FC) is a South Korean professional football club based in Gwangju that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. They joined the K League in the 2011 season. History Gwangju FC was founded in ...

, he scored his first and second professional goals (respectively, in the 83rd and 90th minutes), which proved to be crucial as his team ultimately gained a 3–2 come-back victory.

International career

Lee joined the South Korean under-23 national team for the first time in September 2021, when he was invited by manager Hwang Sun-hong to take part in a training camp in Paju.

Personal life

He is the son of former professional footballer and manager Lee Ki-hyung, who represented South Korea at full international level. He moved to New Zealand in 2007 when his father signed for

Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * 2000 births Living people Korea University alumni South Korean men's footballers South Korea men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards K League 1 players Pohang Steelers players {{SouthKorea-footy-bio-stub