Did Paris Saint-Germain decide to kick out South Korean footballer Lee Kang-in after South Korea lost to Jordan in the Asian Cup semi-final on February 6, 2024? No, that's not true: At the time of writing, no official announcement had been made and Lee was still on the club's official website, listed among the players.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by @shortform.kr (archived here) on February 22, 2024, under the title (translated from Korean into English by Lead Stories staff) "Paris Saint-Germain's emergency announcement! Lee Kang-in is screwed." It opened (as translated):
Breaking news! Lee Kang-in will be fired. Amazing breaking news, Lee is kicked out by his club Paris Saint-Germain.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Feb 29 02:44:47 2024 UTC)
No official press release or communication on Lee being fired has been issued by the Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) that the South Korean footballer plays for as a midfielder. The claim first originated from a YouTube video posted on February 18, 2024. Similar claims have been repeatedly shared on TikTok, here, here, here and here (archived here, here, here and here).
Lee was blamed by upset fans after the AFC Asian Cup. He allegedly got into a fight with another key player, Son Heung-min, right before the semi-final match. After Korea's shocking defeat against Jordan on February 6, 2024, The Sun (archived here) reported on February 13, 2024, that there had been a fight between the two key men, which had been critical to Korea's playing performance. Angry Korean football fans started to blame Lee. In this context, the false claim was shared on TikTok and went viral.
However, no official announcement (archived here) from PSG confirms the claim. Lee is still on PSG's players' list on the website (archived here and here). On February 19, 2024, PSG celebrated Lee's birthday on its official website and Instagram account (archived here and here).
A Google News search (archived here) on February 29, 2024, with the keywords PSG AND Lee Kang-in AND "fired" OR "kicked out," did not return any results that could corroborate the claim.
Moreover, multiple local media outlets (archived here, here and here) have warned about the spread of the false claim on social media.
