Lee Jae-sung @ FSV Mainz 05 2022-2023 [R]

Scored two and assisted one today.

 

Registered two goals and an assist (yet again with his head) versus Darmstadt.

An under-appreciated aspect of his game is his aerial ability. He is surprisingly very good at using his head (6 goals and 4 assists with his head during his time in the Bundesliga), with 40% of his Bundesliga goal involvements being with his head.

Korean Footballers Sorted By Their Goal Involvements (Estimated For Some) In The Bundesliga:

1. Cha Bum-Kun: 169 (98 goals + 71 assists, not OPTA verified)
2. Son Heung-Min: 49 (41 goals + 8 assists)
3. Koo Ja-Cheol: 41 (28 goals + 13 assists)
4. Lee Jae-Sung: 25 (15 goals + 10 assists)
5. Ji Dong-Won: 16 (13 goals + 3 assists)
6. Jeong Woo-Young: 15 (10 goals + 5 assists)
7. Cha Du-Ri: 11 (6 goals + 5 assists, not OPTA verified)
8. Ahn Jung-Hwan: 3 (2 goals + 1 assist, not OPTA verified)
8. Park Joo-Ho: 3 (1 goals + 2 assists)
10. Hong Jeong-Ho: 2 (2 goals + 0 assists)
10. Kwon Chang-Hoon: 2 (2 goals + 0 assists)
10. Kim Min-Jae: 2 (1 goal + 1 assist)
13. Kim Joo-Sung: 1 (0 goals + 1 assist, not OPTA verified)
13. Lee Young-Pyo: 1 (0 goals + 1 assist, not OPTA verified)
13. Kim Jin-Su: 1 (0 goals + 1 assist)
13. Hwang Hee-Chan: 1 (0 goals + 1 assist)

 

He has a knack for making good runs in the box.

 

Two goals against Dortmund so far

 

Borussia Dortmund is a never-ending source of goals for Korean players:

1. Son Heung-Min: 9 goals against Borussia Dortmund
2. Cha Bum-Kun: 7 goals against Borussia Dortmund
3. Ji Dong-Won: 4 goals against Borussia Dortmund
4. Lee Jae-Sung: 3 goals against Borussia Dortmund
5. Cha Du-Ri: 1 goal against Borussia Dortmund
5. Jeong Woo-Young: 1 goal against Borussia Dortmund

25 goals provided by this generous football club, unless I have missed some names out.

 

KJC has nothing?

 

Oddly enough, that seems to be the case.

Koo Ja-Cheol's preferred punching bag was Bayer 04 Leverkusen, against whom he scored 6 goals against (highest tally for a Korean player, if I am not mistaken).

 

Goal against Bayern M. He is having a good season, so is Mainz.

 

Lee scores again

 

Scored the first by sneaking in behind KMJ
https://ffedge.streamff.com/uploads/275d6f98.mp4

Great buildup, turn and finish for the second goal: https://streamin.me/v/kmcyf135

 

He's on fire! Now, only if Hong can follow his lead and starts contributing.

 

With his assist versus Bochum, Lee Jae-Sung becomes the sixth Korean to have 40 or more OPTA-criteria goal-involvements in one of the top five European domestic leagues.

1. Cha Bum-Kun reaches 40 goal-involvements probably towards the end of the 1980/1981 season, but not entirely sure when.
Final tally: maybe somewhere around 169 goal-involvements

2. Park Ji-Sung reaches 40 goal-involvements in the game versus Aston Villa on 16th March 2013.
Final tally: 40 goal-involvements

3. Son Heung-Min reaches 40 goal-involvements in the game versus VfB Stuttgart on 18th December 2014.
Final tally (as of 11th May 2025): 247 goal-involvements

4. Koo Ja-Cheol reaches 40 goal-involvements in the game versus Hertha BSC on 18th December 2018.
Final tally: 41 goal-involvements

5. Lee Kang-In reaches 40 goal-involvements in the game versus FC Nantes on 22nd April 2025.
Final tally (as of 11th May 2025): 40 goal-involvements

6. Lee Jae-Sung reaches 40 goal-involvements in the game versus Bochum on 10th May 2025.
Final tally (as of 11th May 2025): 40 goal-involvments

 

They won 2-1 over Fiorentina, Lee scored the winning goal and assisted the other.

 

27 goals scored for Mainz:

4 goals with his right foot (15%)
13 goals with his left foot (48%)
10 goals with his head (37%)

There has never been a Korean player this potent at scoring with his head for a Bundesliga side since the days of Cha Bum-Kun (who supposedly scored around 37 goals with his head during his time at Germany, and was always known for his aerial prowess even back to his youth years).

 

With his yet another headed goal versus Bayern Munich, Lee Jae-Sung ties the legendary Cha Bum-Kun as the Korean player with the most goals scored versus the club.

1. Cha Bum-Kun: 3 goals
1. Lee Jae-Sung: 3 goals
3. Ji Dong-Won: 2 goals
3. Koo Ja-Cheol: 2 goals
5. Son Heung-Min: 1 goal
5. Jeong Woo-Yeong: 1 goal

 

[우니온 v 마인츠] 이재성 대지를 가르는 어시 마인츠 선제골!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.gif - 포텐 터짐 최신순 - 에펨코리아

[우니온 v 마인츠] 이재성 기점 홀러바흐 추가골!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.gif - 포텐 터짐 최신순 - 에펨코리아

Another assist. And a nice pre-assist also.

At this point, there is a good argument that Lee Jae-Sung may be the greatest Asian attacking player within the Bundesliga over the age of 30 if we restrict the debate to 21st century players, especially in term of goals and assists, as defined by Kicker (I will take the inconsistencies with OPTA assists, for the sake of completion over older records dating back to the 1988/1989 season).

I will obviously exclude Yasukio Okudera and Cha Bum-Kun, as their assist records are recorded by Kicker, although, Cha Bum-Kun would easily top the list with goals alone, with 52 Bundesliga goal strikes to his name, as a player aged 30 or above. He is obviously the outlier amongst outliers, so he will be excluded.

Asian players with the most goals and assists (as defined by Kicker, who has a much wider definition) in the German Bundesliga, aged 30 or above, excluding Cha Bum-Kun, who is obviously the ultimate outlier amongst outliers, and Yasuhiko Okudera:

1. Lee Jae-Sung: 22 goals 21 assists (43 goal involvements)
2. Vahid Hashemian: 8 goals 12 assists (20 goal involvements)
3. Ali Daei: 7 goals 4 assists (11 goal involvements)
4. Genki Haraguchi: 2 goals 8 assists (10 goal involvements)
5. Makoto Hasebe: 2 goals 6 assists (8 goal involvements)

Even if we extend the list to all leagues, other than Cha Bum-Kun and Son Heung-Min, I don't think any Asian player contributed this many goals to one of the four major European domestic leagues.

 

You did a smart thing there, limit it to over 30. But yeah Lee is very underrated.

 

Even without the age restriction, I think you'll find that his accumulated body of work in the German Bundesliga is respectable enough.

His overall goal involvements tally with the wider Kicker assist definition, for the purposes of including all Asians that ever played in the Bundesliga post-88/89 season, which basically means all but two Asian players (Yasuhiko Okudera and Cha Bum-Kun), there are six players in all of history from the entire continent, who currently has him beat for goal involvements.

Out of those six, I think both Daichi Kamada and Son Heung-Min's record (Son's record in particular is already beaten in terms of OPTA metrics) specifically for the German Bundesliga, are quite within reach, maybe within this season, even. So that might leave us with only the records of Mehdi Mahdavikia, Shinji Kagawa, Vahid Hashemian, and Doan Ritsu (due to his youth and career trajectory), being probably out of reach.

So the fact that I've outlined his records beyond the age of 30, was to distinguish his very late entry into top tier European football, which usually is not a good indication for a player trying to accrue a lot of goals and assists. His story should be celebrated more, perhaps like the story of James Vardy, or Ian Wright. The one of perseverance, and continued excellence despite less than optimal unfolding of the timelines.

And out of the players mentioned, it is quite likely that Lee Jae-Sung beats most for defensive actions such as aerial duels won, interceptions, and tackles won. As well as being a selfless teammate in terms of almost never giving the ball away in an attempted display of individual prowess or unecessary flourishes. An unsung hero, without the Park Ji-Sung team accolades for me.