Son Heung-min is unsurprisingly eager to play for South Korea this summer.
Son Heung-min has been one of Tottenham Hotspur’s stand-out players this season, which is saying something when you analyse the strength they have throughout the core of their first team. The 25-year-old has had arguably his best 12-month period as a professional, and now, he wants to carry that momentum forward into the international scene.
The South Korean forward will likely be one of the very first names on the team sheet at this summer’s FIFA World Cup, but as reported by Yonhap News, he’s also eager to turn out for the under-23s at the Asian Games in Indonesia. The team’s coach, Kim Hak-bum, confirmed as much in a recent interview.
“Son has a strong will to compete at the Asian Games,” Kim told reporters.
“But first, there’s the World Cup. I told Son to play well in Russia before we meet at the Asian Games.”
While he’d probably make it into the squad regardless, there’s much more to the story than that. As some fans will know, South Korean males are required to complete two years of mandatory military service which must begin before the age of 27. However, the exception to that rule is if you’re able to win either an Olympic medal or gold at the aforementioned Asian Games.
Due to the nature of the tournament, Tottenham don’t need to let Son go to the tournament if they don’t wish to sign off on it, which would make sense given it overlaps with the start of the 2018/19 campaign. With that being said, it’d be in everyone’s best interests if they were to let him go.
South Korea would likely be favourites to bring home the gold at the tournament, and if Spurs want to make it to that next level in the Premier League and Europe, they need to be able to contend without one of their star players. They’ve been waiting to break into that next level for quite some time now, and so long as they spend well in the summer transfer window, there should be no real issue with allowing Son to try and avoid any interruptions in his career.
It’s clear by the fact that he hasn’t taken up the option to do the service yet that he’s eager to continue his playing career, and Spurs should want to keep him on the books for as long as they possibly can.
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