Feyenoord to Offload Troubled Lee
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Less than a year after signing with Feyenoord, troubled South Korean striker Lee Chun-soo seems to have worn out his welcome in Rotterdam.
The Dutch football giants have recently offered the 27-year-old former South Korean international to Jeonbuk Motors for a transfer fee of 2.9 million euro ($4.56 million), the Korean club said. The Motors turned down the offer, saying that Lee was out of their price range.
``We already have a former South Korean international in Cho Jae-jin and adding Lee might help us sell more tickets," said Baek Seung-kwon, a front office official for the Motors.
``However, the transfer fee suggested by Feyenoord is too expensive for us to consider."
Lee is currently in Korea rehabbing after undergoing ankle surgery last month. There are rumors that Feyenoord shopped Lee around to a number of other Korean clubs such as the Suwon BlueWings, Seongnam Ilhwa and Ulsan Tigers, Lee's former team. However, all three of the clubs are denying that they received offers for Lee.
Lee signed a four-year deal with Feyenoord in September last year, but made more noise off the field than on it.
Just two months after signing the deal, Lee made an abrupt return to Seoul, complaining of ``home sickness." After a bizarre two-week break, during which he was accused of assaulting a bar waitress, Lee returned to Rotterddam but was rendered anonymous on the pitch, failing to score a goal in 12 appearances.
It is not the first time Lee struggled to adjust to European football. During two seasons in Spanish football from 2003 through 2005, Lee appeared in a combined 28 matches for Real Sociedad and Numancia, but failed to score a goal.
Feyenoord had paid the Tigers 2 million euro in transfer fees to acquire Lee, but now seem ready to bail out. It remains to be seen whether they can recover some of their investment, as it's hard to think of any K-League club spending that kind of money on a player with mental issues and a bum ankle.