South Korean defender Lee Han-beom made the move from his homeland to FC Midtjylland in August 2023, but his early months at the Danish club proved challenging as he struggled to adapt to the team’s defensive system. This season, however, the centre-back has finally enjoyed his breakthrough, capped off by scoring the winning goal in the Danish Cup final and earning a place in South Korea’s World Cup squad.

Few footballers experience such a dramatic turnaround in such a short period of time. Within the space of a single week, Lee narrowly missed out on the domestic league title, became the hero of the cup final with the decisive goal, and received a call-up to represent South Korea at the World Cup.

The remarkable end to the campaign completed a stunning rise for the FC Midtjylland defender, who has gone from being relatively unknown to becoming a recognised figure in both the Danish Superliga and the South Korean national team setup.

After catching attention with his performances at the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup, FC Midtjylland secured Lee’s signature in August 2023. He joined the Danish side shortly after fellow South Korean international Cho Gue-sung arrived at the club.

Lee arrived in Denmark carrying a strong reputation as one of the most promising defenders in the K League, but adapting to Midtjylland’s defensive structure was not straightforward. The club’s system relies heavily on aggressive man-marking, a style that differed significantly from the space-oriented defending he had previously been used to.

Despite his difficult start in Denmark, Lee has shown not only his quality as a central defender but also the determination and resilience needed to overcome major challenges. His persistence has helped him secure a regular role in FC Midtjylland’s starting line-up, making 49 official appearances while contributing two goals and four assists for a side known for its highly physical style of play.

The 23-year-old rounded off an impressive campaign in memorable fashion by scoring the winning goal in the Danish Cup final against FC Copenhagen. Just two days later, he received another major reward when he was named in South Korea’s squad for the World Cup.

In this exclusive interview , Lee reflects on the challenges of adapting to a new culture, a different mentality, and a defensive system unlike the one he was familiar with while playing for the South Korean national team.

He also shares insight into FC Midtjylland’s physical approach to the game, discusses the reasons behind the gap to newly crowned champions AGF, and looks back on his decisive goal in the Danish Cup final against FC Copenhagen.

Finally, Lee speaks about the pride and excitement of being selected for South Korea’s World Cup squad, as well as his thoughts on the national team’s chances of progressing beyond the tournament’s latter stages.

Asked about his adaptation to life in Denmark, Lee admitted the beginning was far from easy.

“In my first season, I hardly played and really felt the language barrier,” he said. “Still, I stayed focused on training and continued working quietly behind the scenes. This season, the new coach gave me many more opportunities, and that helped me settle much better. Cho Gue-sung also supported me a lot because I had someone I could talk to whenever I was struggling or frustrated.”

Lee also revealed that the lack of playing time during his early months at FC Midtjylland left him considering other options.

“When I wasn’t playing at the start, I explored different possibilities to go on loan to Korea or elsewhere, but nothing materialised,” he explained. “In the end, I just accepted the situation, treated myself like a trainee, and concentrated fully on improving in training.”

FC Midtjylland entered the season with expectations of competing for silverware on multiple fronts, eventually lifting the Danish Cup despite narrowly missing out on the league title.

“Even though we just missed out on the championship, I still see it as a successful season in many ways,” Lee said. “Winning the cup final with the decisive goal was a great moment, and I also think we performed strongly against quality opposition like Nottingham Forest in the Europa League.”

Reflecting on the title race with newly crowned Danish champions AGF Aarhus, Lee believes consistency proved to be the key difference between the two sides.

“Actually, we had a very strong record against Aarhus in our direct meetings,” he noted. “But they consistently won the games they needed to win, while we dropped points at important moments during the title race. I also think the demanding schedule affected us, because from the middle of the season we were competing in the Europa League, the Danish Cup, and the league all at the same time.”

Lee also addressed FC Midtjylland’s physical style of play, which has drawn criticism at times after the club accumulated the most yellow cards in the Danish league this season.

“Because the team focuses heavily on man-to-man defending and the coach encourages us to stop opposition attacks with tactical fouls when necessary, I think we naturally end up collecting a lot of yellow cards,” he explained. “I picked up a few myself, but maybe because I’m not as aggressive as some of the others, I fortunately avoided reaching the suspension limit of four bookings,” he added with a laugh.

Reflecting on his winning goal in the Danish Cup final, Lee described the moment as one of the highlights of his career so far.

“I regularly practised making runs during set-piece situations in training,” he said. “In the cup final, the ball strangely kept falling to me during those situations, so I had a feeling I might score. I was really happy when it finally happened. Although, honestly, I’m still not sure the cross was actually intended for me in the first place,” he joked.

When asked about the toughest player he has faced so far in his career, Lee pointed to Nottingham Forest star Morgan Gibbs-White.

“It’s difficult to choose only one player, but Morgan Gibbs-White felt the most dangerous,” Lee admitted. “He wasn’t directly my assigned opponent, but watching how much my teammates struggled to stop him, you could see how intelligent and difficult he is to play against. Even if I had to mark him man-to-man, I think it would be extremely challenging.”

Speaking about his future ambitions, Lee revealed that Manchester City is the club he dreams of representing one day.

“The team I would most like to play for is Manchester City,” he said. “They are my favourite club, and I would love the opportunity to work under Pep Guardiola. It doesn’t have to be the Premier League specifically, but my dream is to play in one of the major European leagues, such as Germany.”

Lee also reflected on the emotional moment of being selected for South Korea national football team’s World Cup squad.

“I had some expectations because I think I performed fairly well in the recent international friendlies against Austria and Ivory Coast,” he explained. “As soon as the squad announcement came out, my family and teammates immediately congratulated me, and I received messages from many people I know.”

His FC Midtjylland teammate Cho Gue-sung was also included in the squad, and Lee admitted the pair had already spoken about sharing the experience together on football’s biggest stage.

“We’ve played together at club level for a long time, but the World Cup is a completely different environment,” Lee said. “We talked about how special and different it would feel to represent the national team together at such a major tournament.”

South Korea have been drawn in a World Cup group alongside Mexico, South Africa, and the Czech Republic, with Lee expecting a difficult challenge from the African side in particular.

“Out of the three teams, I think South Africa could be the toughest opponent,” he noted. “We don’t know as much about African teams, but when I spoke to a teammate with African roots, he told me they are very aggressive, physically strong, and also good in build-up play. I also heard they performed very impressively during the World Cup qualifiers.”