Heung-Min Son (손흥민)

[Joe Clash]

Country is first priority in my world

In sport? Most on here would put Tottenham before England I'm sure.

And if you're being paid to do a job you do what your employers tell you. How many more players are going to be out at the start of the season? He's a nice lad and all that, but ultimately he's a professional footballer in the extremely well remunerated employ of THFC.

 

[GlasgowSpur]

Find it really tough to decide on this one.
I love Spurs and I love Scotland.
To decide between them would be unbearable.

From our point of view. Would playing in the Olympics be really detrimental to his Spurs development?
Still competitive games and he'd only miss at most 2 games at start of the season.

 

[Boltonspur]

It's a tough one. Normally, I would say club before country-any day. However, if he plays in the Olympics, he can avoid national service - which he has to do before he's 28. If he turns out to be the player we hope he can be, then losing him for a pre season & a couple of games next season is preferable to losing him to national service for up to a year, as he's hitting his peak.

 

[Mockers]

Find it really tough to decide on this one.
I love Spurs and I love Scotland.
To decide between them would be unbearable.

From our point of view. Would playing in the Olympics be really detrimental to his Spurs development?
Still competitive games and he'd only miss at most 2 games at start of the season.

It's not the games. He'd be missing Poch's tough pre seaso regime meaning he'll be so far off the pace we might as well right him off until Christmas.

He's paid an obscene amount as a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER. That should be his priority. Not swanning off to play in the olympics.

Tell him he can go without pay for the duration. See how keen he is then.

 

[GlasgowSpur]

It's not the games. He'd be missing Poch's tough pre seaso regime meaning he'll be so far off the pace we might as well right him off until Christmas.

I agree that may be the case.
I was wondering if competitive games (and not the usual pre-season nonsense games) would be better for his development.
It depends how competitive the Olympics are as a competition and as you say he will miss the training.

Similar could be said for all our players heading to Euros. They wont get the full benefit of pre-season.

 

[Mockers]

I agree that may be the case.
I was wondering if competitive games (and not the usual pre-season nonsense games) would be better for his development.
It depends how competitive the Olympics are as a competition and as you say he will miss the training.

Similar could be said for all our players heading to Euros. They wont get the full benefit of pre-season.

They won't. And that is definitely a concern in terms of our preparations for next season.

The main issue is that the Olympics is a bit of a joke event when it comes to Football. It's debatable whether it should be in there at all and if it is whether professionals should compete.

As he's mentioned he's played in both the World Cup and the Asia cup for his country which are much more prestigious tournaments from a footballing perspective. So it isn't as if this is his one opportunity to represent his country on a big stage.

If I were in charge of tell him he can't go and would be pretty disappointed that he even wants to considering the iffy season he's had.

The flip side of this is Eric Dier who chose himself to pull out of the under 21 Tournament so he could focus on training with Spurs. That's the attitude I want to see.

 

[GlasgowSpur]

They won't. And that is definitely a concern in terms of our preparations for next season.

The main issue is that the Olympics is a bit of a joke event when it comes to Football. It's debatable whether it should be in there at all and if it is whether professionals should compete.

As he's mentioned he's played in both the World Cup and the Asia cup for his country which are much more prestigious tournaments from a footballing perspective. So it isn't as if this is his one opportunity to represent his country on a big stage.

If I were in charge of tell him he can't go and would be pretty disappointed that he even wants to considering the iffy season he's had.

The flip side of this is Eric Dier who chose himself to pull out of the under 21 Tournament so he could focus on training with Spurs. That's the attitude I want to see.

Completely agree with this.
I believe the Olympics should have remained amateur only and to have sports like football/tennis and now golf, etc is ridiculous.
I probably wouldn't have much of a problem with him going if it ran alongside the Euros and so he would be back the same time as everyone else.

The Dier example is spot on. A CB that got pretty much no game time last year. I think most of us thought he was gone last summer. A full pre-season and he emerges as possibly the best DM in the country.

If Poch could replicate even a little bit of the magic with Son he really could be important for us next year.

You've convinced me
If hes not allowed to go lets hope Korea isn't too pissed with us

 

[KySpurs]

It's not the games. He'd be missing Poch's tough pre seaso regime meaning he'll be so far off the pace we might as well right him off until Christmas.

He's paid an obscene amount as a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER. That should be his priority. Not swanning off to play in the olympics.

Tell him he can go without pay for the duration. See how keen he is then.

Again, he has the added motivation to play at the Olympics to avoid military service in the next few years. I think he has to be on a team where South Korea medals in order to get that exemption. That's a pretty strong motivation, and it would really be in the club's best interests to let him go and play in Rio.

 

[Bjorn Synnes]

I believe the Olympics should have remained amateur only and to have sports like football/tennis and now golf, etc is ridiculous.

I am old enough to remember how the communist block "amateur" olympian athletes were all public employees in the army or customs officials/border guards. Their workload besides training was perhaps somewhat on the light side.

But I agree with the football/tennis/golf point. These sports are so huge they don't need the Olympics. And as the Games inflate, the finance/infrastructure/practical problems balloon - soon only China will be interested in hosting them. Big sports don't need to participate and the really small sports doesn't do much for the Olympics and should also be cut. (I have seen sports on TV during the Olympics that I didn't know existed - shooting at a running boar (made of cardboard) comes to mind)

 

[Mockers]

Completely agree with this.
I believe the Olympics should have remained amateur only and to have sports like football/tennis and now golf, etc is ridiculous.
I probably wouldn't have much of a problem with him going if it ran alongside the Euros and so he would be back the same time as everyone else.

Again, he has the added motivation to play at the Olympics to avoid military service in the next few years. I think he has to be on a team where South Korea medals in order to get that exemption. That's a pretty strong motivation, and it would really be in the club's best interests to let him go and play in Rio.

if this is the case then of course it's better that he goes. There's been very little said about that being true tho.

 

[GlasgowSpur]

if this is the case then of course it's better that he goes. There's been very little said about that being true tho.

I remember a lot of chat about this when he signed but not a lot since.

 

[Mockers]

I remember a lot of chat about this when he signed but not a lot since.

Yeah I remember it being mentioned too. No one seemed to know the exact details tho. Some reports even said he was already immune from national service.

I'd be very surprised if there wasn't some sort of financial deal that he could make to side step it too.

My mate is Turkish and I think he had to pay a fee and that reduced his national service to 4 weeks. Surely son could chuck the government 20k or something to be excused.

 

[GlasgowSpur]

Yeah I remember it being mentioned too. No one seemed to know the exact details tho. Some reports even said he was already immune from national service.

I'd be very surprised if there wasn't some sort of financial deal that he could make to side step it too.

My mate is Turkish and I think he had to pay a fee and that reduced his national service to 4 weeks. Surely son could chuck the government 20k or something to be excused.

You'd think that would be the case. I'd also add that he is promoting Korea on the biggest club footballing stage next year in the CL.

 

[Joe Clash]

Needs a medal to be exempt.

 

[Jayc1]

"After winning bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, Ki, 27, and his team-mates' service was reduced to four weeks."

4 weeks then?

 

[GlasgowSpur]

"After winning bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, Ki, 27, and his team-mates' service was reduced to four weeks."

4 weeks then?

Just read this on BBC and at first thought they were talking bout Son.

 

[Boltonspur]

"After winning bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, Ki, 27, and his team-mates' service was reduced to four weeks."

4 weeks then?

Did he play & qualify for this exemption? Genuine question.

I think he's still in the firing line.

 

[GlasgowSpur]

Did he play & qualify for this exemption? Genuine question.

I think he's still in the firing line.

According to Wikipedia he didn't so I think you are correct.

 

[Sons of Thunder]

As for the military issue, since someone asked for a recap, basically Son is stuck in a sh!tty confluence of factors working against him. He was born too late to exploit a loophole for middle school dropouts which Lee Chung-Yong (formerly at Bolton, now at Crystal Palace) used to gain exemption. Now that loophole is apparently reopening but is only open to people born after 1996. He missed exemption with the 2012 Olympic squad (sorry for knocking out Team GB) that won Bronze and then missed it again in 2014 when Korea won Gold in the Asian Games. That one hurt especially, since not only was it one of his last chances to gain exemption, the Korean FA told Leverkusen that Son only had to show up for the Final. Basically they were willing to make a farce of the competition in order to get Son his exemption. Bayer refused to release him for that single game, his future be damned. Now he only has the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 Asian Games, unless Korea makes some serious noise in the 2018 World Cup. Given how crap we were in Brazil 2014, I wouldn't be banking on that option..

As for deferring service based on residency or fabricating a medical loophole, there is a long string of celebrities/pop stars/etc. who have destroyed their careers by attempting such things. Son would effectively become persona non grata. The question remains if Son can become a big enough star to force the issue and sway public opinion if the time comes for him to report for duty and he hasn't gained exemption. It would pretty much take an Act of Congress (sorry, don't know what the Korean equivalent term is) to get him an exemption by fiat. Even then there would be very vocal opposition, regardless of how big a star Son might be.

TL;DR
-This is one of the last two chances for exemption Son has. He opted out of the 2012 Olympics to focus on his club career at Hamburg and his teammates won the bronze medal without him. So that may be in his mind when he's making this decision. Only a bronze medal or greater will grant exemption.
-Military service is normally 2 years and he has to report when he's 28 years old at the latest. His footballing career would be over and Tottenham would essentially lose him with nothing in return.
-There is no way to bribe your way out of service. Keep in mind there's a deranged fat fuck of a dictator north of the border claiming to have nukes, not to mention the massive artillery barrage permanently aimed at South Korea's capital, Seoul.

 

[White Van Jan]

TL;DR
-This is one of the last two chances for exemption Son has. He opted out of the 2012 Olympics to focus on his club career at Hamburg and his teammates won the bronze medal without him. So that may be in his mind when he's making this decision. Only a bronze medal or greater will grant exemption.
-Military service is normally 2 years and he has to report when he's 28 years old at the latest. His footballing career would be over and Tottenham would essentially lose him with nothing in return.
-There is no way to bribe your way out of service. Keep in mind there's a deranged fat fuck of a dictator north of the border claiming to have nukes, not to mention the massive artillery barrage permanently aimed at South Korea's capital, Seoul.

thanks for this.
you said its one of his last 2 chances to avoid Nat Serv - whats the final one btw?