Lee Ki-hyuk, Kim Seung-gyu Clash: Online Hate Over Same Names

After the South Korean national football team lost 0-1 to Mexico in their second group stage match of the 2026 North, Central American, and Caribbean World Cup, a mix-up occurred where criticism directed at footballer Lee Ki-hyeok was mistakenly sent to the social media of actor Lee Ki-hyeok, who shares the same name.

During the match, a collision between defender Lee Ki-hyeok and goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu led to a missed ball, which Mexico's captain Luis Romo capitalized on to score the winning goal. Immediately after the game, some fans left critical comments on footballer Lee Ki-hyeok's social media.

The issue arose when some netizens confused footballer Lee Ki-hyeok with actor Lee Ki-hyeok. Actor Lee Ki-hyeok's social media was flooded with bizarre comments related to the football match, such as "Why did you block Kim Seung-gyu?" and "What are you doing?". Even after realizing it was the actor, some netizens continued their nonsensical criticism.

Footballer Lee Ki-hyeok, seemingly aware of the intense criticism, switched his social media account to private. He plays for K League's Gangwon FC and was selected for the World Cup squad. In the previous match against the Czech Republic, he had displayed stable performance.

Meanwhile, actor Lee Ki-hyeok, who debuted in the 2004 film "Temptation of Wolves" and recently worked as the director of the film "Method Acting," found himself in a difficult situation, suffering unexpected malicious comments due to a football match result completely unrelated to him.