17-year-old Lee Seung-woo listed among 500 most important footballers

Teenager soccer protégé Lee Seung-woo (FC Barcelona Juvenil A) representing Korea is getting highly sought after. The World Soccer, a soccer magazine, enlisted Lee as one of the "most influential players on earth" in the April issue.

Twelve Barcelona players make the list, including Lionel Messi (Argentina), Neymar da Silva, Dani Alves (up to here Brazil), Andrés Iniesta Luján, and Xavier Hernández i Creus (up to here Spain), and Luis Alberto Suárez (Uruguay). Among these, Lee is the only player who is not a member of the first string. The soccer magazine said that Lee drew attention from Barcelona by acquiring the top scorer award at the Danone Nations Cup in South Africa in 2010, adding that a cornerstone of the Korean youth soccer player is already being highly sought after by many clubs.

Lee completed training as member of Barcelona Team B over the past week. Barcelona B is a team of second string players, who are fiercely competing with top-rated players of the first string. As he was given disciplinary action from the FIFA due to violation of rules on recruitment of minors aged under 18, Lee is not allowed to participate in any official match as a member of Barcelona through Jan. 18 next year, when he will turn into age 18.

Other Korean players who make the list are Ki Sung-yueng (Swansea City) and Son Heung-min (Bayer Leverkusen).

elegant@donga.com