Son Heung-min picked as wild card for Olympic soccer team

Korean national soccer team has publicized Monday one wild card player who will play at this year's Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5 to 21.

Son Heung-min (24) of the Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League has been named a wild card for Korea’s national Olympic team. In Olympic soccer finals in which players aged 23 or under participate, up to three wild card players aged 24 or older out of the 18 players in the team’s roster can be deployed. Ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London, the Olympic team, which was led by Coach Hong Myung-bo (47), current coach of the Hangzhou’s Green Town, publicized the three wild cards when Hong announced the team’s 18 members about a month before the opening of the event.

Selection of Son was announced first by Uli Stielike, the coach for the Korean national soccer team, rather than Shin Tae-yong (46), the coach for the Olympic team. Coach Stielike mentioned the choice of Son as a wild card when announcing the roster of the national team on Monday, which will play the second qualifying match against Lebanon (scheduled on March 24 in Ansan, Korea) for the Asian region of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Stielike said, “We excluded Son from our A team roster to support the Olympic team. In consultation with Coach Shin, we have requested Tottenham to cooperate so that Son Heung-min can participate in the Olympics. Instead, we have decided not to call Son for the A team this time. Tottenham has agreed to positively consider Son’s participation in the Olympics.”

Unlike the World Cup, professional league clubs are not obliged to let their players join national teams for the Olympic Games because the latter are not A matches that are recognized by FIFA. By taking into consideration such situation, Stielike chose to exclude Son from his A match team to support the Olympic team. The national A team already confirmed its advance to the final qualifying round for the Asian region of the World Cup, which will begin in September, and has some leeway in terms of schedule until the Olympic Games will end in August.

On the same day, coach Shin also announced the roster of the Korean Olympic team who will play in two friendly matches against Algeria (scheduled on March 25 in Icheon, and March 28 in Goyang). “Son Heung-min expressed his strong desire to participate in the Olympics,” the coach said. “I will pick the other two wild card players by examining our opponent teams for the group league, once Olympics soccer draws take place on April 14.

Kwon Chang-hoon (21) of Suwon Samsung FC has also made the roster for the Olympic team. Kwon played for both the national A team and the Olympic team. Asked why he excluded Hwang Hee-chan (20, Salzburg), a key striker of the national Olympic team, Shin said, “In return for not bringing him this time, his team agreed to send Hwang much earlier when we call our team prior to the Olympics’ opening.” Asked about the possibility to recruit Lee Seung-woo (28, Barcelona FC Juvenile A), Shin clarified his decision not to include, saying “(Lee Sung-woo) is not in my mind as of now.”

이종석기자 wing@donga.com