Tadanari Lee

Tadanari Lee (李 忠成, Ri Tadanari; born 19 December 1985) is a Japanese football executive and former player who played as a striker or attacking midfielder. He is currently the vice chairman and sporting director of Singapore Premier League club Tampines Rovers.

Lee has made 11 appearances for the Japan national team. He is known in Japan for coming on as a substitute in the 109th minute of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup final held in Qatar and scoring his first international goal to secure a 1–0 win over Australia, giving Japan their fourth AFC Asian Cup success.

Lee is sometimes known as "Chung", in reference to his Korean name, Lee Chung-seong.

Lee was born to third generation Zainichi Korean parents in Tanashi (present-day Nishitokyo), Tokyo. He has Byeokjin Lee (벽진이씨 [ko]) ancestry. His father was also a footballer, who played for Yokohama Tristar FC in the Japan Soccer League.

His Korean name is Lee Chung-seong (Korean: 이충성; Hanja: 李忠成) where his former name was known as Tadanari Ōyama (大山 忠成, Ōyama Tadanari).

Lee started playing football at Komine FC and later moved to Yokogawa Electric. In 2001, he joined FC Tokyo youth team and took second places at All Japan Club Youth Soccer tournament, Prince Takamado Cup and J.League Youth tournament. He briefly joined training squads for the South Korea U-19 and U-20 teams but not played at official games. He experienced severe discrimination from Korean teammates referring to him as a ban-jjokbari (half-Jap) with strong racial undertones.

He was promoted to FC Tokyo in 2004 and moved to Kashiwa Reysol in 2005 and later joined Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2009.

On 11 January 2012, Lee secured a work permit to allow him to play for Southampton, who confirmed the free transfer on 25 January 2012.