K-Netizens Call For Son Heung Min And Lee Kang In To Retire Following Fight Coverage

This follows the team’s match loss.

Following their altercation and the subsequent coverage, fans have called for Son Heung Min and Lee Kang In to retire from the South Korean national team.

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Lee Kang In (left) Son Heung Min (right) | Yonhap News Agency

Before the match against Jordan in the 2024 Asian Cup, Son Heung Min and Lee Kang In were involved in an altercation where Son’s fingers were injured. The team would go on to lose the match, something some blame on Lee’s behavior during the match.

Lee Kang In also apologized for his behavior.

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Some discrepancies have led some to believe that the focus was intended to distract from the issues inside the Korean Football Association. Because of the team’s poor performance, many have called for both Jurgen Klinsmann, the team’s coach, but also the Korean Football Association’s president, Chung Mong Gyu.

KFA’s Vice Chairman Lee Seok Jae has called for Klinsminn’s resignation. At the same time, the Korean non-profit organization Public Welfare Committee filed a complaint, accusing Chung of interfering with KFA’s procedures, a crime under Korea’s Criminal Act.

Korea Times
Chung Mong Gyu | Korea Times
yonhap
Jurgen Klinsmann | Yonhap

With all the strife inside the organization, some have called for the two players to retire from the team. This is not because of their fight but to make the organization sort itself out with the loss of two star players.

Son Heung Min, Lee Kang In, take responsibility and just retire from the national team. Why would you be a national player when all they do is make you sacrifice your body under Klinnsman’s system, while they sacrifice their players to avoid responsibility and don’t even think of protecting the players? Hope you guys just announce your retirement, then come back only after they change the KFA chairperson and coach. What f*cked up politic play is this.

— @Rewrite_News/X

Many called for Son Heung Min specifically to retire, as he has dealt with the organization for much longer.

It’s hilarious how it took the association forever to issue the statement about [Hwang Ui Jo’s] illegal filming issue. But it was so quick to acknowledge the garbage report from some British gossip site? That’s why we hope [Son Heung Min] retires from the national team. He gave 100% on the field, yet he’s being used by the association to block the criticism from failing the tournament. This can’t be right.

— @9110708/X

I hope Son Heung Min retires from the national team.

— @jong064/X

I’m so sick of this now. What more does Son Heung Min need to do? Frankly, considering how long Son Heung Min played for the national team, he won’t have any regrets retiring from it. Who loses if Son Heung-min retires from the national team? Why is the KFA doing such negative publicity? Right now, no one is having a harder time than Son Heung Min himself. It’s the KFA who messed up in the first place and lost the cup, and now they’re using Son Heung Min as a shield…? I just really wish he would retire from the national team.

— @ttaa0419/X

As netizens question the organization’s motives, only time will tell what the truth of the situation is.

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