Atlético de Madrid and European champions Paris Saint-Germain on Monday reached an agreement over the transfer of South Korea star Lee Kang-in, according to reports in France and Spain.
Lee will swap the French capital for the Spanish capital after weeks of negotiations amid the player’s participation in the FIFA World Cup. Atlético will pay an initial €35 million to sign Lee, who has long been on the club’s radar but arrives now after three seasons and 12 trophies in Paris. He will be Atleti’s second
summer signing after Spain full-back Álex Grimaldo.
While a certain someone at Atleti leaked through the media that Lee could arrive for just €25 million, the talks in practice will end with PSG making a tidy profit on the attacking midfielder. If the bonuses are triggered, the total value of the Lee transfer could rise to €40 million; three years ago, Lee was available for just €17 million.
Nevertheless, Lee has agreed a five-year contract to 2031, and the clubs should make the transfer official in the next day or so.
Lee, 25, returns to Spain seeking a platform to match his talent. Mateu Alemany has a longstanding connection to the player, who broke through at Valencia during Alemany’s tenure at the club. After he terminated his contract at Mestalla, Lee became one of LaLiga’s best midfielders at Mallorca before he moved to PSG.
In Paris, Lee made 123 appearances over three years but started only 68 games across all competitions. Even still, Luis Enrique rated him highly and refused to sanction his departure in January, when Atleti began inquiring about him. Though he played fewer than 1,700 minutes in each of his three seasons in Ligue 1, Lee produced 0.50 goals and assists per 90 minutes; that’ll play nicely over a full season. In 2025/26, he scored three goals and provided four assists in 27 appearances encompassing 1,519 minutes as PSG won a fifth successive league title.
Lee is at the ideal time in his career to gain prominence at a European giant, and an Atlético side that lost Antoine Griezmann to Major League Soccer this summer is prepared to offer him that kind of stage. Lee certainly is not a singular Griezmann replacement — he doesn’t carry that kind of goal threat, and no one player can succeed the club’s all-time top scorer anyway. But he can be part of a solution in the post-Griezmann era alongside Álex Baena and Ademola Lookman, both of whom arrived last season. Though South Korea were grouped at the World Cup, Lee in North America reinforced his quality as a creative force whose agility, crossing, dribbling and ball-carrying will, at the very least, allow Atleti to upgrade on the underwhelming Thiago Almada.
In addition, Lee’s arrival will provide a welcome marketing boost as Atlético seeks to boost its profile in Asia. Known as South Korea’s “Golden Boy,” Lee is one of the continent’s most popular players. Atleti’s new home shirt with his name and number will move massive numbers overseas after Suga from the K-Pop group BTS unofficially debuted the home shirt during a concert at the Metropolitano last month. Atleti will play Manchester City in a preseason friendly in Seoul on Aug. 9, and he will participate in the Asian Cup as an Atleti player in January 2027.
