Lee Kyung-soo (이경수; born October 28, 1973) is a former

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defender, who predominantly played in the

K-League K League (Hangul: K리그) is South Korea's professional football league. It includes first division K League 1 and second division K League 2. History Until the 1970s, South Korean football operated two major football leagues, the National S ...

Club career

Lee's foray as a professional footballer began with the

Suwon Samsung Bluewings ''(The Blue, White and Reds)''Tricolor'' , short name = SSB , image = , caption = , founded = , ground = Suwon World Cup Stadium , capacity = 44,031 , owner = Cheil Worldwide(Samsung's subsidiary) , chairma ...

as a draftee, and he spent two seasons with the club without ever featuring in the K-League before departing for single season spells with

Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i Ulsan Hyundai FC ( ko, 울산 현대 축구단) is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League ...

and

Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma Cheonan (; 천안시, ''Cheonan-si''), also spelled Ch'ŏnan, is a city in South Chungcheong, South Korea. Cheonan has a population of 666,417 (2018), making it the most-populous city or county in South Chungcheong, and the third most-populous ci ...

. A two-year stint at

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors ( ko, 전북 현대 모터스) is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Playing at the Jeonju World Cup S ...

followed. Despite spending six years at K-League clubs, Lee had still to establish himself as a first team regular, accumulating a mere 24 games in the K-League, with a few matches in Cup competitions. Lee then dropped out of the K-League ranks to spend the 2002 season with amateur side Seoul City FC before returning to the K-League with

Daegu FC Daegu FC (Korean: 대구 FC) is a South Korean professional football club based in Daegu. The club was founded as a community club at the end of 2002, and made their K League 1 debut in 2003. Daegu has played mostly in the K League 1 but was re ...

for their inaugural season in the K-League. He finally was able to consider himself as a regular starter in Daegu's side for the 2003 season, playing 22 matches in the K-League. However, the following season he fell out of favour and saw much less match play. By this time

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

side

Sichuan Guancheng Sichuan First City () is a defunct Chinese football club, which was located in Chengdu, Sichuan where they played in the Chengdu Sports Centre. They were founded in 1953 and spent a large part of their history within the top tier of Chinese foo ...

was showing interest in Lee's services, and he subsequently signed with the club for the 2004 season. He spent only a single season in China before returning to South Korea for a final season in the K-League with

Daejeon Citizen Daejeon Hana Citizen Football Club (Korean 대전 하나 시티즌 축구단) is a South Korean professional football team based in Daejeon that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. At the time of its foundation in 19 ...

Management career

After retiring as a player at the conclusion of the 2005 K-League season, Lee took up a coaching position with FC MB. MB means initial of

Hong Myung-bo Hong Myung-bo ( ko, 홍명보, Hanja: 洪明甫; ; born 12 February 1969) is a South Korean former footballer who played as a sweeper, and the current head coach of Ulsan Hyundai. Hong is often considered one of the greatest Asian footballers ...

's given name.

International career

Lee was a member of the South Korea under-20 football team. He was also a squad member of the South Korea under-23 football team (which participated at the

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

), even though at the time of the

, he was still at

Soongsil University Soongsil University (SSU) is the first modern university in Korea, dating its history back to 1897. It was founded under the Christian missionary William M. Baird. The campus is located in 369 Sangdo-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Histo ...

. It was only after the Olympics that he began his professional career in the

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Kyung-soo 1973 births Living people Association football defenders South Korean footballers South Korean expatriate footballers Suwon Samsung Bluewings players Ulsan Hyundai FC players Seongnam FC players Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors players Daegu FC players Daejeon Hana Citizen FC players K League 1 players Expatriate footballers in China Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of South Korea South Korean expatriate sportspeople in China