Son Heung-min and Cristiano Ronaldo are iconic No 7s, Premier League legends and international record-breakers. Now there is a surprising danger of them having something else in common: being a divisive presence in their national teams. On 21 October, during a parliamentary committee meeting, politician Jeong Yeon-wook put a question to acting Korea Football Association (KFA) president Lee Yong-soo, that took a story out of the sports pages and into the national conversation.
Do you know who that is?” Lee then replied, “Are you referring to Son Heung-min?” Jeong went on: “So it appears to be true. … It has also been revealed that the national team’s leadership is causing discord and has broken down overall.” Lee declined to comment. Less than 18 months ago, Son was lifting the Europa League trophy as Tottenham Hotspur captain. That was his last act for the London club after a decade in the Premier League, during which he became a face of the world’s most popular domestic league and a huge star back home.
Then came a move to Los Angeles FC in Major League Soccer, one the 34-year-old said was made partly to prepare for the 2026 World Cup. That tournament was a disaster, with a group-stage exit and a media boycott after unnamed reporters had mocked Son’s lack of military service. He started on the bench for the final game, a dismal defeat to South Africa.
Since then, coach Hong Myung-bo and KFA president Chung Mong-gyu stepped down, were grilled by parliamentarians and then police raided KFA offices. All agree that it was a terrible summer for Korean soccer, but that seems to be where the shared opinions end. Divisions between older and younger players are not uncommon in soccer but Korea’s situation is unusually complex.
A colleague just a year older is addressed differently and with deference. Guus Hiddink saw this as an issue when he arrived as national team coach in 2001, famously forcing players to sit together when eating in a bid to make it possible for the juniors to shout instructions at their seniors during games. This seems more serious – even more than at the Asian Cup in 2024 when there was an altercation over table tennis between Son and a group of younger players including rising star Lee Kang-in that resulted in the skipper dislocating a finger.
Lee and Son soon made up but there is a bigger issue now. According to many reports, the class of 1996 are unhappy. Kim Min-jae of Bayern Munich, FC Porto’s Hwang In-beom and Hwang Hee-chan, formerly of Wolverhampton Wanderers and now with Schalke 04, are all now senior players and, it seems, unhappy with the leadership in the team and after the World Cup wanted a fresh start with a new captain and new head coach.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
