Lee Kang-in gets the star treatment as Mallorca launch Korean Twitter account

RCD Mallorca launched an official Korean-language Twitter account this week in an apparent nod to the importance of Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in and the club's rapidly growing Korean fanbase.

The official Korean-language Twitter account of La Liga club RCD Mallorca [SCREENSHOT]

RCD Mallorca launched an official Korean-language Twitter account this week in an apparent nod to the importance of Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in and the club's rapidly growing Korean fanbase.

"Welcome to the official Korean account of Real Mallorca! Fighting!," the club tweeted in its first post on Tuesday alongside a video of Lee high-fiving teammates during training.

The launch of the account comes as 21-year-old Lee, a fan favorite in Korea since he was only six-years-old, has become an increasingly important figure for both the Mallorca and Korean national team this season. Tottenham Hotspur, home of talismanic Korean captain Son Heung-min, operate a similar Korean-language Twitter account.

Lee joined Mallorca last year after a decade in Valencia and has been having a particularly good season, scoring two goals and picking up three assists so far and earning a player of the month nomination along the way.

Lee has established himself an especially effective playmaker, using fancy footwork to beat defenders and his impressive accuracy to get the ball up to the front.

That skill was on display in Qatar, where he very quickly made a name for himself, appearing in all four games and making a mark in his World Cup debut against Uruguay, when Lee and Cho Gue-sung came on as late substitutes and immediately breathed new life into a flagging team.

Against Ghana, Lee came on in the 57th minute and within less than a minute he had driven a beautiful cross into the box for Cho to head home.

That one-minute assist likely turned more than a few heads in Europe’s big five leagues, where attention has already been on the young midfielder. It also earned Lee a spot on the list of youngest assist providers at the Qatar World Cup, coming in as the fourth youngest.

For Lee and Mallorca, the focus is now likely to be on whether there are any serious offers on the table when the January transfer window opens in 10 days.

Lee has only ever played for two clubs, both in Spain. He has long been a fan favorite back home, where he has been seen as the future of Korean football since starring on TV show “Fly Shoot Dori” at just six years old. He moved to Valencia a few years after that appearance and spent 10 years in the academy before being dropped last year and moving to Mallorca.

The launch of the Twitter account this week suggests that any offers tabled for Lee this January are unlikely to get an especially warm welcome in the Balearic Islands.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]