Lee Ho Jae (Pohang Steelers | South Korea)

Lived for a while in New Zealand, apparently has citizenship. Played for Real Onehunga Sports before going to Incheon U18s, hard to come across match reports but looks like he's scoring for fun in the U18 K-League according to his Facebook. Anyone have links to him or the league?

news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2016/08/03/2016080300788.html He was top scorer of the Incheon side that came 2nd in the U17 K-League cup last year, which is pretty nice to hear.

Nice work. Hopefully someone at NZF knows, and one of U20's coaching staff check him out when in Korea for their World Cup.

Was he born in New Zealand?

Does he have a New Zealand mother or father?

Does he have a New Zealand grandmother or grandfather?

Doesn't sound like it, so he's not eligible to play for New Zealand, and given he is still under-18 and now living in South Korea, I can't see how we could claim a waiver.

No New Zealand parents, but underwent his schooling here and it looks as if he was born here according to his social media.

Ty mate! I'm trying to dig up what i can on him, everything i can find's in Korean and using a translator is pretty much a lost cause haha

If he shifted here for non-food all reasons and lived here for 5 years and has citizenship then we should be able to get a waiver

It seems his father is Lee Ki-Hyung who played for Auckland from 2007-2010, and is now the manager at Incheon United. Would assume Ho-Jae came to NZ in 2007 too. 

So doubt he was born in NZ, but he lived here for 9 years so NZF *MIGHT* be able to obtain an exemption for him.

Good work mate! Sounds like a promising prospect for NZF, he's got fluent english as i've spoken to him before, it's looking likely that he's got citizenship too.

Sent a quick email to Rob Pickstock at NZF about the kid. Though wouldn't be surprised if his family had already made contact with NZF, to see if he qualified etc.

good man! if anyone knows best it's Rob

Why would he play for NZ... surely Korea would be the better option?

Because he is more likely to get a regular spot for NZ because we have nowhere near the depth of South Korea

Wow - this could be a decent find imho.

Obviously NZF must do their homework to ensure he ticks all the boxes first.

And then perhaps he should get a look in! 

Keen to see how this develops!

I don't see how this guy could possibly qualify for NZ,  now that he's not even 18 and back living in his home country.

How does Tommy Smith qualify? 

He wasn't born here, nor did he have any family ties, he just went to school here as a kid.

Not to mention, he also played age group level for England. 

I say, give it a go, and see what the outcome is. 

FIFA statues have changed since Smith got his NZ eligibility.

There would need to be special dispensation given for this guy to be able to play for NZ. End of story.

From what Wibblebutt found, plus the fact that he went to my friend's school when he was in Year 7, it's looking likely that he's been here for long enough to gain citizenship. Now to see if he's got it :)

We claim Lydia Ko as a kiwi, why not this guy :)

Even if he has a NZ passport?

Passport does not equal FIFA eligibility. See Wynne, Deklan. 

You need to live in the country for 5 years after turning 18 to get automatic eligibility for a country, or apply for special dispensation (which will likely be approved, it's been approved for everyone else NZF has applied for). 

WYNNE?????

A better comparison would be Storm Roux. He has no NZ lineage and lived in NZ from 1996-2007 (he was 13 when he left NZ). He was granted an exemption so I would see no issue with Ho Jae being granted one also.

Gideon Zelalem was also granted one to play for the USA in similar circumstances.

The big issue would be if he wanted to represent NZ (his father has over 40 caps for South Korea), but as has been mentioned, South Korea has much bigger playing depth than NZ.

Okay cheers

As has been pointed out, and should be well known after Deklan Wynne-gate, citizenship and passports mean jack shark. It's birth, parents, grandparents, or five years past age of 18. And if the answer to none of those is yes, you can go for a waiver, for someone who moved here for non-footballing reasons as a youngster - but given this guy has now gone 'home' as it were while still a youngster, hard to see any attachment to NZ that would make him come under us.

This from Mr Pickstock in reply

"Thanks for this – I have checked and he is on the tech staff’s radar

Let’s see where it goes.

Thanks again

Rob Pickstock – National Men’s Team Manager"

How long has he been on the radar...

Can he play for our u17's... was he considered for the u20's?

pretty damn fabulous, thanks a ton! like he said, let's see where this goes, we don't want to be disappointed at the last minute by any issues

I don't believe he was known, but now that he is good on NZF for looking into him. He's only 16 as of now (born 14 October 2000 for the record) so yeah, u17s looking good!

Pickstock directly said that he was known...

My bad, misread that.

This of course could be NZF BS, with Rob doing his best to hide the fact that the Fever are better scouts (see Rojas) then NZF etc

Was my suspicion too, the only links between him and New Zealand on the internet are his social media, and one article in Korean, so i'm guessing it would be hard for even the best scouts to find out about him. Hell, i only knew him because i played against him once. But if NZF really did know him, massive kudos.

He's going to have to be a stunner to make the 17s bother with the waiver process, which is doomed to fail in this kid's case.

Watching his games and talent as a 14-15 year old, he's certainly got a very good shout should he pass all the necessary tests

Are you Le Ho Jae? 

You certainly have talked this guy up heaps.

Haha I don't think I'm Lee Ho Jae, i'm just getting excited at the prospect of a young NZer making a name for himself

His record as a youth at a pro club is surely better than any current NZ17 players including Max Mata... in an environment that is known at youth level to be very competative.

If his dad played for Korea, what apart from blind hope, makes us think that he'd want to represent NZ?

Fond memories of growing up here?

I think the idea of him playing for us is pretty far-fetched at this time. Maybe in like 5 years if he doesn't see a path to representing Korea (assuming FIFA would give the waiver after all that time away from NZ).

Agreed. Korean NT would be his priority i'm guessing since it's his birthplace and he's got his dad who happens to be his club manager and a former international who will be chirping in his ear about making it with Korea. Plus it's a higher level. But ya know, if he doesn't make it or we approach him quickly enough, I can see him playing for us. He's lived here for the majority of his life and he's bound to have a big connection to the place.