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In 2010, Lee Seung-Woo stood out in a crowd of 2.5 million.
The Danone Nations Cup is the most prestigious children’s soccer tournament in the world, and four years ago, millions of hopeful children between the ages of 10 and 12 competed for their chance to represent their nation at the finals in South Africa.
The tournament happens every year. The children are all talented and passionate, but an overwhelming majority will never even get a whiff of the final cut. In the struggle to be the best in the world, the realities of competition don’t wait for anyone to grow up.
In South Africa, Lee Seung-Woo rose to the top of that cauldron of nations. He was the top scorer in the tournament with 12 goals, and his play for South Korea caught the eyes of no less than the finest youth academy in the world: Barcelona’s La Masia.
Even among his peers at La Masia - youth players that grew up friends, in the same neighborhood, at the same school - Lee set himself apart. In his first season playing for Barcelona’s Infantil A squad he scored 38 goals and provided 18 assists in just 29 games. Such production outpaced Messi himself, who, at a year older, scored 38 goals in 30 games during a year at La Masia.
The only thing that grew faster than his ability as a player was his reputation. The inevitable cliche, “Korean Messi,” would be just the beginning in a long train of hype that would ride alongside the young boy for the rest of his youth career.
Then came adversity. Barcelona had broken the rules in their acquisition of the Korean phenomenon, and there was a hefty price to pay, for both Lee and Barcelona. FIFA banned Lee from playing at La Masia, and handed out a crippling one year transfer ban to Barcelona.
Talent, however, banned or not, has a way of showing itself. Enter Lee Seung-Woo’s performance at the 2014 U16 Asian Championships.
Did you watch entire the video? No? Trust us, you need to go back and watch the entire video.
At 16, Lee has it all: pace, technique, and confidence. Each goal he scored in that tournament was better than the last, which is ridiculous considering how good the second goal is. He recieves the ball in a position in which he has no right to score, but he just effortlessly lifts the ball over two sliding defenders and slots it past the keeper. And that last goal! Please believe that last goal was the highlight of this writer's day!
Seung-Woo is the kind of player that you move heaven and earth - or in this case, get banned for two full transfer windows - to get in your squad. And in all seriousness, we might all look back on this ban in 10 years and think, “Man, if it was me, I would have taken a 5 year ban if it meant my team got Seung-Woo.”
He is that good. We know it, you know it, and it is written all over his body language that he knows it, too. “Scores like Messi, celebrates like Ronaldo” is often thrown around when describing Lee, and, after watching his performance at the Asian Championships, The18 has to agree.
Despite South Korea losing 2-1 to North Korea in the final of the tournament, Lee was named the tournament's best player and, just like in South Africa, its top scorer. Lee had this to say after the final, “Despite the fact that I finished as top scorer and was named the MVP, I’m sad about the result.”
That quote, just as much as his individual awards and statistics, makes him stick out. He has the attitude that society always associates with a winner: He values the success of his team more than his production as a player.
He scores like Messi, but celebrates like Ronaldo. In 10 years that combination might be known as something much simpler: plays like Lee Seung-Woo.
