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San Francisco Giants upstart Jung Hoo Lee had a respectable start to life in the majors in 2024. However, he got bitten by the injury bug just 37 games into his inaugural major league campaign. As baseball action resumes, so does the South Korean phenom's chances of showcasing his full potential for the Giants.
In a recent interview with KNBR, Lee was asked about which athlete he would embody besides himself. The young outfielder had selected the modern-day soccer legend and one of the greatest players ever, Lionel Messi—albeit, for a unique reason as stated by his translator Justin Han.
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"I don't want to personally translate this but, Jung Hoo's been playing FIFA with me a lot," Hoo's interpreter Justin Han said. "He is really good at playing as Lionel Messi on FIFA so I always lose to him. He picked Messi because he's really been working with Messi a lot, with the PlayStation." (3:40-3:52)
Despite his peculiar reasoning, it comes as no surprise that a South Korean like Jung Hoo Lee is a soccer fan. After all, a 2021 poll determined that 25% of South Koreans stated that their favorite sport is soccer with baseball coming in at second place with 18.8%.
Lionel Messi has been one of the biggest soccer stars for the better part of two decades. The 37-year-old is an 8×Ballon D'Or winner and a 6×European Golden Boot winner.
Jung Hoo Lee smacks first home run of 2025
During the San Francisco Giants' Spring Training game against the Colorado Rockies, Jung Hoo Lee smashed his first home run of the new season off Rockies pitcher Chase Dollander.
Lee finished the game with a hit, a home run and a walk, in two at-bats as the contest between the Giants and Rockies ended in a draw. The game was also noteworthy as it was the first start for future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander in Giants' colors. As for the center fielder, he is projected to have a .253/.314/.383 slash with an OPS of .698 during the 2025 regular season per Baseball Reference.
