{"id":11827,"date":"2018-03-25T20:55:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T11:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=11827"},"modified":"2018-03-26T01:02:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-25T16:02:03","slug":"column-four-roads-diverged-son-heung-min-facing-mandatory-military-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2018\/03\/25\/column-four-roads-diverged-son-heung-min-facing-mandatory-military-service\/","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: Four roads diverged for Son Heung-min facing the mandatory military service"},"content":{"rendered":"

written by Eugene Choi, Football Tribe Korea<\/em><\/p>\n

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Credit: Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 25-year-old Korean is undoubtedly one of the best Asian football players now. This wing forward has recorded 18 goals and eight assists in 41 matches.<\/p>\n

However, he has not been linked up with any bigger club than Tottenham Spurs. One of the reasons is the military service he is yet to complete.<\/p>\n

All Korean men must complete 21 months of mandatory army duty. Those who are employed overseas can postpone the commencement until they become 27 years old, or in July 2020 in his case.<\/p>\n

It is known that Son had completed his conscription examination in 2016. This examination cateogrises men into four groups based on the physical and psychological constitution as well as qualifications such as educational background and age:<\/p>\n

– Active duty: those who to be on active duty for 21 to 24 months, the length of which is based on military branch;<\/p>\n

– Non-active duty: those who are to perform “supplemental service” such as social work;<\/p>\n

– Second citizen service: those who are to be called up in time of war only; and<\/p>\n

– Exempt: those who are to be exempted from any military service<\/p>\n

As Son has does not hold a high school diploma, he shall be considered a non-activy duty personnel, who is likely to do a social work for 24 months.<\/p>\n

However, to understand his situation better, Football Tribe Korea has contacted the Military Manpower Administration (MMA), a military organisation under the Ministry of National Defense, and found out that he has four roads in front of him to either military service or exemption.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Click on ‘NEXT’ to find out more!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Scheme for notable athletes\/artists on MMA’s website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1.\u00a0 If he wins a gold medal in the upcoming Asian Games<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those who win medals in the Olympic Games or gold medals in the Asian Games are not required to join the national service as long as they finish 4 weeks of basic military training and continue to be engaged in sports field for 34 months. Ki Sung-yueng is under this scheme as he won the bronze medal in the London 2012 Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n

For Son Heung-min, the only chance is to win a gold medal in the 2018\u00a0Jakarta Palembang Asian Games. The London Olympics cannot be an option as he can postpone his military service until he becomes 27 years old, July 8 2020, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are to be held on July 24 2010.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Scheme for permanent residents of foreign countries on MMA’s website<\/p>\n

2. If he is a permanent resident of Germany<\/strong><\/p>\n

Permanent residents of another country can postpone the military service until they become 37 years old.<\/p>\n

To become a permanent resident of the United Kingdom, where he is, however, one has to have resided in the country for five years; Son joined Spurs in 2015 and as such he does not meet the minimum criteria. Only two years are required for those who marry UK citizens but to be able to postpone the national service in Korea, he shall have been a permanent resident of another country for three years, which means it is too late for him.<\/p>\n

We are unsure whether Son has already become a permanent resident of Germany; he had lived in Germany from 2008 to\u00a02015 so he was eligible to apply. If he had done so during his times in Bundesliga, he would be able to play football overseas for another 12 years.<\/p>\n

There are several issues, though. permanent residency isn’t easy to attain and maintain especially in Europe, and even more difficult when one does not reside in the country anymore.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Criteria to join Sangju Sangmu on Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps’ website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. To be a K League player is another option<\/strong><\/p>\n

Selected players can serve the national service by playing for the military team Sangju Sangmu in K League 1 or Asan Mugunghwa in K League 2.<\/p>\n

Players must be i) categorised\u00a0as active duty personnels and ii) registered K League players. Son shall be a non-active duty personnel now as he has not graduated from a high school, but can take an exam to attain a high school diploma, so this can be easily solved.<\/p>\n

The problem is that he has to be a registered a K League player. This means he has to end the contract with Spurs and join a K League team by end 2019 for a half a season at least so that he can start his military duty at Sangju Sangmu or Asan Mugunghwa before July 2020.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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4. Retirement<\/strong><\/p>\n

If none of the options above works, he might need to postpone as much as possible, meaning July 2020, and retire at the age of 27 to start his military service as a social work agent while playing in the K3 League, the fourth tier of South Korean football league system.<\/p>\n

He can resume his career at 29 after completion of the national service, but losing two years won’t be easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

written by Eugene Choi, Football Tribe Korea The 25-year-old Korean is undoubtedly one of the best Asian football players now. This wing forward has recorded 18 goals and eight assists in 41 matches. However, he has not been linked up with any bigger club than Tottenham Spurs. One of the reasons is the military service he is yet to complete. All Korean men must complete 21 months of mandatory army duty. Those who are employed overseas can postpone the commencement until they become 27 years old, or in July 2020 in his case. It is known that Son had completed his conscription examination in 2016. This examination cateogrises men into … Continue reading “COLUMN: Four roads diverged for Son Heung-min facing the mandatory military service”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":11828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,30,867],"tags":[1075,95,486],"class_list":["post-11827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-players-in-europe","category-east-asia","category-korea","tag-asian-games","tag-slider","tag-son-heung-min"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}