“The reason I didn’t choose Son Heung-min is because he is a player we need to protect, cherish and love.”
Coach Kim Hak-beom, who leads the men's soccer team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, explained that the reason for not selecting Son Heung-min in the 22 final roster was to protect the players.
Coach Kim met with reporters before the final training for the Olympic team started at Paju NFC today (2nd) and said, "It hurts my heart not to choose Son Heung-min." "I played a lot this year alone. 3,996 minutes. I played 51 games . There were also some abnormalities detected on the EPL stage. In this part, there could be a problem with the hamstrings. We decided that the risk of injury was very high, so we excluded it."
He said, "Looking at the tight Olympic schedule in the future, we have to protect the players we need to protect even if we can't use them." He said, "We may lose great talent. “, he added.
Coach Kim did not select Son Heung-min while selecting Hwang Ui-jo, Kwon Chang-hoon, and Kim Min-jae as three wildcard players from the 18-man national team announced yesterday.
In the midst of this, as the news that Son Heung-min had obtained permission from Tottenham to participate in the Olympics became known, attention was drawn to the background of the decision to 'exclude Son Heung-min' by coach Kim.
In particular, FIFA decided to increase the Olympic final entry from 18 to 22 for this tournament, but coach Kim did not select Son Heung-min in the additional list announced this morning.