Asian Games: South Korea’s Young Soccer Stars Face Biggest Game Of Career

Two weeks ago, Paris Saint-Germain’s attacking midfielder Lee Kang-in was playing against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League. This week, he is up against a striker who plays for Japan’s University of Tsukuba.

It could be the biggest game of Lee’s career.

South Korea’s under-23 team face Japan in the gold medal match at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games on Saturday evening local time.

That match might not get much attention outside of the countries involved, but for South Korea’s soccer players, winning a gold medal would give them a vital exemption from a career-disrupting spell in the armed forces.

South Korean men have to enlist in the military during their twenties, usually for 18 months. Some professional players can do this service by playing for Gimcheon Sangmu (formerly Sangju Sangmu), the local armed forces team. But even this is a huge disruption for players in Europe, who have to join another K League club first so they can be loaned to Sangmu, and this often spells the end of their careers in Europe.

Some South Koreans, like Danish side Midtjylland’s Cho Gue-sung, who scored twice against Ghana in the 2022 World Cup, try to play for Sangmu at the start of their careers to avoid such disruption, but other players don’t have that option.

With an Olympic medal or a gold medal at the Asian Games offering a route to exemption from full military duty, the Korean Football Association takes the Asian Games very seriously.

South Korea’s men’s soccer team is looking for its third gold in a row.

The previous gold came in Jakarta-Palembang in 2018.

Had South Korea not won gold in Indonesia, Son Heung-min would have likely not won the Puskas Award or Premier League Golden Boot, Kim Min-Jae might not have got his move to Napoli or helped them win Serie A, and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ top scorer this season Hwang Hee-chan would likely be playing in South Korea’s K League right now.

Lee Kang-in is the star of South Korea’s side this year, and could reach the very top if his career isn’t disrupted by injury or military service. His popularity in Korea is such that PSG added a tour date in the port city of Busan after he joined from La Liga side Mallorca in the summer.

Lee missed South Korea’s first two games due to Champions League duty and is yet to make his mark in Hangzhou. Rather, South Korea’s star has been VfB Stuttgart’s Jeong Woo-young, who is the top scorer at the tournament with seven goals.

Other up-and-coming players like Hong Hyun-seok, who plays at Belgian side Gent, and Midtjylland’s Lee Han-beom could also see their careers pan out completely differently depending on the color of medal around their necks at the end of Saturday’s match.

South Korea’s path to the final has been less rocky than it was five years ago.

In the group stage this year, head coach Hwang Sun-hong’s side breezed past Bahrain, Thailand and Kuwait, scoring 16 goals without reply. After relatively comfortable wins over Kyrgyzstan and China in the knockout rounds, South Korea had a minor scare in the semi-finals against Uzbekistan, but saw out the game 2-1 after the Uzbeks were reduced to ten men in the second half.

South Korea now face a Japanese side who also have a 100% record, although with less convincing wins apart from their 4-0 demolition of Hong Kong in the semifinals.

Japan were South Korea’s opponents in the final five years ago, and several players from that team, such as Kaoru Mitoma, Daizen Maeda and Ko Itakura have since gone on to have successful careers in Europe.

Like in 2018, Japan’s team this year is younger and less experienced than South Korea. But that final five years ago was only decided after extra time, and this year’s final, featuring the same bitter rivals, could be just as nerve-shredding.