PSG’s Lee Kang-in and South Korea’s U-23 team are in the final at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Should they win gold, they will avoid a career-damaging stint in the military.
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.
