Middlesbrough To Sign South Korea Striker Lee Dong-Gook
English Premiership club Middlesbrough reported to sign South Korea striker Lee Dong-Gook, subject to the player being granted a work permit.Lee, 27, has not played in the required 75 percent of his country’s games over the last year to qualify automatically for a permit under rules drawn up by the Home Office, Britain’s interior ministry.
But a number of those matches were missed due to injury and Boro are confident of securing the former Werder Bremen player’s services from Pohang Steelers when their case is submitted early next week.
Lee, nicknamed the ‘Lion King’ by South Korea fans, played for his country at the 1998 World Cup finals in France as a 19-year-old but was left out of the squad when his nation co-hosted the 2002 tournament with Japan by Dutch coach Guus Hiddink.
He was expected to play in last year’s finals in Germany but was ruled out with a cruciate knee-ligament injury sustained playing for the Steelers in the K-League. where he he has been the top scorer for the past two seasons.
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