South Korean former football goalkeeper (born 1973)
Lee Woon-jae (Korean: 이운재; born 26 April 1973) is a South Korean former football goalkeeper. He was part of South Korea's 1994, 2002, 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cup campaigns. He was the only Asian player nominated for the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper of the 21st Century (2001–2011).[4]
International career
Lee was a part of the South Korean national team for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He was substituted into the game against Germany for main goalkeeper Choi In-young and did not concede a goal in 45 minutes. After the 1994 World Cup, he suffered from tuberculosis and hepatitis and worried that his playing career might end. Luckily, he made a recovery and came back to the national team in 1998.[5]
Lee was selected for Guus Hiddink's squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup as the first-choice goalkeeper after the rivalry against Kim Byung-ji. He appeared all of seven matches until the third place play-off, and kept three clean sheets against Poland, Portugal and Spain in the tournament. He made the history of South Korean football in the quarter-finals against Spain. After the match was ended without a goal until extra time, Lee blocked Spain's fourth shot taken by Joaquín in the penalty shoot-out. South Korea defeated Spain 5–3 on penalties, becoming the first-ever Asian team to advance to the semi-finals in the World Cup.[6][7] South Korea finished fourth place in the tournament.
Lee captained South Korea at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup in place of the injured Kim Nam-il. He kept clean sheets in all of South Korea's games in the knockout stage and saved a total of three penalties in shoot-outs (two against Iran and one against Japan). He was selected as the goalkeeper of the All-Star XI. However, he was suspended from the national team for a year, because he sneaked out from his hotel room and went on a drinking binge in an Indonesian bar along with teammates Kim Sang-sik, Woo Sung-yong and Lee Dong-gook before the match against Bahrain, which South Korea lost.
Lee is one of two players (the other being Rigobert Song of Cameroon) to be selected for four World Cups from 1994 to 2010. He is one of seven players from Asia to play in four different World Cups. He played his last game for the national team in a friendly against Nigeria on 11 August 2010 in a 2–1 victory and subsequently retired from international football.
Style of play
Nicknamed the "Spider Hand" in South Korea,[8] Lee is regarded as one of the greatest South Korean goalkeepers of all time. He didn't have good height and rapid pace, but showed great judgment and the harmonies with defenders.[8] He was also noted for his predictive ability and this made him strong on the penalty shoot-out. In shoot-outs of his K League career, he won 92% of matches (11 out of 12) and saved 45% of shots.[9] (26 out of 58)
