Tottenham's Heung-min Son loses first match at Asian Games in bid to avoid military service
Heung-min Son’s bid to avoid military service with South Korea has taken an unexpected blow after losing his first game of the tournament against Malaysia.
A gold medal at the Games will exempt Son from 21 months of military service, an obligation he is otherwise expected to start within the next two years.
This was the main driving force behind Tottenham’s decision to release him for international duty, something former club Bayer Leverkusen did not do four years ago.
After South Korea won their opening game 6-0, more was expected against Malaysia, ranked 171st in the world, 114 places behind Son and his teammates.
The Spurs man, who came off the bench for the last ten minutes of the Premier League win over Newcastle last weekend, was not named in the starting XI in Jakarta but came off the bench just before the hour mark and could not stop a 2-1 defeat.
Son was picked as one of the three wildcard players, the over-age players in the under-23 squads, for South Korea.
