Lee Kang-in set to make Atlético Madrid debut in front of thousands of home fans on Sunday

Lee Kang-in, one of the country's most beloved football stars, is set for his Atlético Madrid debut on home soil this weekend.

Lee and his new Spanish club will face the Premier League giants Manchester City in a preseason friendly at 8 p.m. Sunday at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Mapo District, western Seoul.

This will be the final match of the fifth edition of the Coupang Play Series, run by the namesake streaming service that brings popular European clubs to Korea for preseason matches each summer. Atlético and City also squared off in the 2023 Coupang Play Series, with the Spanish side prevailing 2-1.

This year's fixture was set well before Lee signed for Atlético in late July. The 25-year-old had played for the French champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) over three up-and-down seasons and is now going back to the country where he spent his formative years.

Lee had played for two other La Liga clubs, Valencia and Mallorca, before his PSG spell.

Lee was not able to leave Korea to join his new Spanish club after the FIFA World Cup 2026 due to some administrative holdup and missed their preseason match against Manchester United in Sweden. In the meantime, Lee had been training at the facilities for the K League 1 club FC Seoul.

In a clear sign of Atlético's faith in him, Lee has inherited the No. 7 from club legend Antoine Griezmann, who now plies his trade in the MLS.

In Sunday's match, it will bear watching how manager Diego Simeone will utilize Lee's vision and passing chops in front of supporters in Seoul.

In a Spanish interview clip posted on the club's website this week, Lee said he could hardly wait to finally take the field with Atlético.

"Over the past few weeks, I have been training at a high intensity so that I can arrive in the best possible shape," Lee said. "As a player and as a person, I have a winning mentality. I am always ambitious, and always striving to improve and achieve more. For me, the most important thing has always been to help the team, and I am determined to achieve the goals that I have and that the whole team has."

Lee and his new teammates will be up against Man City, who brought a strong traveling squad despite the absences of two World Cup heroes, Rodri and Erling Haaland.

City defeated Team K League 3-1 in the first Coupang Play Series match Wednesday. First-team players Rúben Dias, Phil Foden and Gianluigi Donnarumma all saw action then.

Played with Seoul gripped by a record-breaking heat wave, Wednesday's match drew just over 28,000 fans at the 66,000-seat Seoul World Cup Stadium, the second-smallest crowd in the series' history. With temperatures expected to fall slightly over the weekend and with Lee in line for his first Atlético match, Sunday's contest is expected to draw more fans.

Yonhap