For Son Heung-min in 2018, read Lee Kang-in in 2023. Five years ago, Tottenham Hotspur reluctantly released their South Korea forward to participate in the Asian Games and he arrived in Indonesia midway through the tournament to lead the team to gold. This month, Paris Saint-Germain belatedly allowed Lee to fly to China and the midfielder arrived just before the group stage ended ready to help the team go all the way once more. The reason why big clubs from the capitals of England and France and elsewhere have allowed such talent to leave when they are not obliged to by Fifa is the same: the South Korean government grants military exemption to those who win gold at the Games.
The pressure was greater on Son because 2018 was his last chance before turning 28, the age by which all able-bodied men must report for duty that usually lasts between 18 and 21 months. The following year he would have had to return home. At 22, Lee has more time but the Asian Games, which Korea also won in 2014, offers by far the best chance of cutting those 18 months or so down to 544 hours of community service and the best chance of continuing a career at the top of European football (any medal at the Olympics works but that has been achieved only once, in 2012).
No wonder Lee was said to have insisted on a clause in his contract when signing for PSG in the summer that stated he had to be released to play in Hangzhou. No wonder also that when Lee, who was discovered as a seven-year-old in a football TV reality show, arrived, he thanked his teammates for making it through the group stage without him.
It was a stroll. There was a 9-0 thrashing of Kuwait in the opening game then a 4-0 victory over Thailand. It ended with a 3-0 win against Bahrain. They conceded a first goal in the second-round clash with Kyrgyzstan but it mattered little because five went in at the other end. A Sunday quarter-final with China (whose strict lockdown policy resulted in the Games being held a year later and under-24 players – as well as three overage – being allowed instead of the usual under-23) will be tasty, but in this form few would bet against South Korea, despite them facing a physical opponent and a hostile crowd.
The Taegeuk Warriors would usually expect to win these games but the margins show a simple truth: the massive prize on offer for the players means they take the tournament more seriously than anyone else. Teams such as Japan can use it for developmental purposes but South Korea have to win. Military service not only means Europe-based players have to return but it makes them less attractive in the first place, with clubs more reluctant to take a chance on a player who becomes almost worthless as he approaches the age when most are said to reach their peak.
The reason for military service can be found on the other side of the 38th parallel. The two Koreas are technically still at war after a ceasefire and not an armistice ended the Korean war in 1953. More often than not, relations between Seoul and Pyongyang are as cold as a January night in the demilitarised zone that separates them.
The Games are a big deal for North Korea too and the relatively short journey to Hangzhou marks a return to the international stage after an absence of four years. They, too, have reached the quarter-finals, and will play Japan on Sunday. North Korea’s top club, April 25, reached the final of the 2019 AFC Cup, the continent’s second-tier club competition that does not involve the leading nations, but none have entered since. Likewise, qualification for the 2022 World Cup was going pretty well. The Chollima won their opening two games, drew with South Korea and then, in November 2019, got a point in Beirut and haven’t played since.
Covid hit the country hard with a health service unable to cope. Connections with the outside world, never extensive, were cut and have only just been tentatively reopened with national flag carrier, Air Koryo, resuming flights to Beijing and Vladivostok last month. There has been little football played and a move to give players more international exposure, which had become a priority, came to a halt. Three losses in three 2010 World Cup games moved the powers that be to try to give youngsters more access to the outside world. Bright prospects were sent to Italy and Spain and the Pyongyang International Football School opened in 2013. Two hundred of the best youngsters – male and female – were placed with the best coaches the country had to offer and tacticians from overseas were brought in.
International sanctions make it tough for North Korea’s federation to receive money owed from organisations such as Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation and star players overseas have had similar issues. In November, however, the national team will start on the road to the 2026 World Cup, which will take place 60 years after the country reached the quarter-finals of its first World Cup. A group containing Japan, Syria and probably Myanmar will be interesting off the pitch as well as on it. North Korea face a challenge to finish in the top two and get into the final round of qualification for the eight automatic places up for grabs for Asia.
If they can replicate their Asian Games form there is a chance. In China, North Korea faced Taiwan, Kyrgyzstan and Indonesia in the group stage and won all three without conceding. Then came a 2-0 win over Bahrain to reach the quarter-finals. It will be tough against Japan but the possible prize of a final against South Korea is very much on and there would be a huge amount at stake. Second is nowhere and silver is nothing.
