Hotspur face uncertainty over Son Heung-min
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Son Heung-min
British media take keen interest on Son’s military issue
By Baek Byung-yeul
Ever since English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur signed Son Heung-min last year, fans anticipated the young Korean football star will provide the offensive spark for the London-based club.
Against all expectations, however, the 24-year-old was held to only four goals in 28 matches for Tottenham, and rumors had it that Son will return to the German Bundesliga where he spent his previous five-plus seasons before the beginning of this 2015/16 season.
Despite all the rumors, Son stayed with the Hotspur and he seems to be making a fresh start in his second Premier League season as he has already scored five goals for the team. After scoring two goals against Middlesbrough on Saturday to help his team to its 2-1 victory, Son netted the winning goal in Tottenham’s 1-0 victory over CSKA Moscow in their UEFA Champions League Group E action in Moscow, Tuesday.
By this time, British media started talking about Son’s military issues, examining uncertainty over Son’s future with the Hotspur.
The British Daily Telegraph reported Thursday that “Tottenham Hotspur face uncertainty over the future of Son Heung-min when he will have to return to South Korea to complete his mandatory military service.”
Stating that Son “can play abroad until July 2019” even if he wins an exemption from the 21-month compulsory military duty, the newspaper added “the club are largely in the dark over whether or not the military service is likely to be completed while he is their player.”
In Korea, all young, healthy men have to complete their compulsory 21-month military duty. Given that only 0.3 percent of all men who had a physical examination for the draft in the first half of this year were exempted, the only way for Son to get an exemption from conscription is to win a medal in the Olympics or a gold medal in the Asian Games. Once satisfying the condition, the medal winner only has to complete the four-week basic military training. Son’s fellow countryman footballer Ki Sung-yueng who plays for Swansea City of the English Premier League earned the exemption by winning the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Acknowledging the situation surrounding Son, his club released him to play in the recently finished Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, but things didn’t go as they planned as Korea lost at the quarterfinal stage with the podium in sight.
Son has not officially mentioned anything about his plans yet, but he is expected to be part of Korea’s squad for the 2018 Asian Games, which will take place in Jakarta right after the 2018 Russia World Cup.
Son expressed his hope to join the Asian Games in Indonesia in an interview with a Korean TV news right after returning from Brazil last month.
“It (competing at the 2018 Asian Games) completely depends on whether the coach picks me up or not. But if I am given a chance I will do my best as a national team member,” Son said on a local news show on Aug. 31.
Son is also receiving high expectations here as he is included in the 23-man roster for the Korean national football team that will stage two World Cup qualifiers next month.
Aiming to secure their ninth consecutive World Cup berth, the Korean national football team will host Qatar on Oct. 6 and have an away match with Iran five days later.
Paired in Group A with China, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iran and Qatar, Korea now ranks third with one win and one draw.