Son Heung Min Is Exempt From The Military After Defeating Japan At The Asian Games

[pearlychoco.livejournal.com]

Tottenham forward Son Heung-min will avoid military service for South Korea after helping his country beat Japan 2-1 in the Asian Games football final.

A gold medal at the event, along with an Olympic podium finish, is the only automatic way for a South Korean footballer to be excused a call-up.

The game against Japan went into extra-time before Lee Seung-woo and Hwang Hee-chan put South Korea 2-0 up.

Ueda Ayase pulled one back but South Korea held on for a fifth title.

Korean captain Son, substituted in the dying seconds to buy precious time, burst into tears at the final whistle after sprinting from the bench to embrace goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo.

The 26-year-old has not carried out the two-year mandatory military service expected of his countrymen and faced being called up if South Korea failed to win the final.

But victory gave the whole South Korea squad an exemption and ensured an end to the uncertainty surrounding a player Tottenham bought for about £22m [op's note: that's roughly $37M CAD & $28M USD], and who signed a new five-year contract in July.

South Korea beat neighbours North Korea to take gold in 2014 but Son was not in the squad as Bayer Leverkusen, his club at the time, had exercised their right to refuse his release.

🇰🇷 Congratulations, Sonny - #AsianGames WINNER! 🥇 pic.twitter.com/NT63QmbtbT

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 1, 2018

This also means that the rest of the Korean Football/Soccer team that participated in the Asian Games are exempted from the military as well. Congratulations!

Sources: BBC Sports, @SpursOfficial

Comments

[ironicmustache.livejournal.com]

yaayyyyyyyyyy sonny <33
now get back to london cause i've been missing you these past 3 games

[pearlychoco.livejournal.com]

my older brother legit asked me that question this morning, and i was like "dude, he's playing at the asian games this year" and he had no clue he was there, let alone in the finals LOL

but i'm so happy for him & his team! :D

[jackieee94.livejournal.com]

Yassss get it bby!!!

[myungung.livejournal.com]

yes, it's what he deserves. I'm so glad that he managed to play in the Asian Games, because Tottenham could have held him for the start of the premier league. But long term goals seemed more viable so yay!

[spainawards2008.livejournal.com]

Lose him for potentially just a month or definitely lose him for 2 years if he doesn't compete and then has to do his service. Guess it wasn't much of a choice and now it's paid off for them

[myungung.livejournal.com]

yea I'm glad it paid off, because I think his previous club (Bayer Leverkusen?) didn't release him for the Asian Games, and they won a gold medal for that too! which was such a waste.

[aures.livejournal.com]

i remember our dutch presenter for the wold cup already mentioning it back then, but he said that even though he gets this, that it can still be quite an issue for koreans, that they still want him to serve
is this true? that's it's still frown upon?

[pearlychoco.livejournal.com]

it would depend on who you're speaking to in that regard. when i was reading the comments on naver & nate, most of the younger crowd were pleased that he was exempt from the army while the older crowd were basically like "congrats, but when is he going to undergo four weeks of basic training?"

i side with the older crowd. as much as i'm happy that he won and doesn't have to conduct 2 years of army training, he has to do at least 4 weeks of basic training (which, no matter if you're exempt, you have to do it regardless), and as long as he does that and not avoids it, i'm good.

[phililen3.livejournal.com]

22m is a lot of money. I wonder how players that dont get exemption status deal with their contracts.

[blck-ink.livejournal.com]

wowww!!! this is great! congrats sk

[epona.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that athletes could be exempted because of success? Armies trying to get BTS exempt seems slightly less wild now lol

[anconeous.livejournal.com]

Athletes can be exempted if they win a medal in the Olympics or get a gold medal in the Asian Games. Or if you’re a super special squad like that men’s football team that did so well against the odds in the 2002 World Cup. They get exempted from doing military service, but they still have to show up for basic military training for 4 weeks.

The thing about the BTS issue is there is no objective way to gauge success for an idol because it keeps the game keeps changing. What may be groundbreaking now may not be so amazing in 5 years. At least for athletes, there’s a standard goal and it’s either you achieve it or you don’t.

[abcd123.livejournal.com]

you technically can get an exemption for anything that "can raise the national profile.” - its not only athletes but certain forms of art as well. i'm not sure if you saw the news about a korean politicians discussion regarding military exemption (he used bts as an example which is kind of what rose this whole issue) - but in it also mentioned winning a ballet competition can grain exemption (https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2018/07/26/korean-politician-discusses-military-exemptions-k-pop-idols-bts // http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20180904000775 <-- the articles), and i've also seen violin and piano competitions included. like the other reply says, athletics is easier to gauge based on success, but from what i gather from this article is that the whole exemption discussion is controversial to say the least.

disclaimer tho that i'm nowhere near an expert in this, only really learned about it when i dated a korean transfer student and we were discussing our future and stuff