Son Heung-min, a Korean footballer who plays for German Bundesliga side Hamburg SV, will not join the national squad for the 2012 London Olympics, local reports said.

Kicker, one of Germany’s leading sports magazines, said on its website Tuesday that Son has decided not to make an appearance in the Olympics in order to concentrate on the next league season, which is his third year after signing with Hamburg.

“In Korea, an Olympic appearance has a special meaning, but I want to speed up for Hamburg,” the 20-year-old player told Kicker. “What matters is to pour all my time into team training.”

Son was impressive in the 2010-2011 pre-season and signed his first professional contract on his 18th birthday. He later renewed the deal, which will keep him at the club until 2014.

Over the course of the 2011-2012 season, he made 30 appearances for Hamburg and scored five goals, including crucial goals against Hannover and Nurnberg at the end of the season to help ensure that Hamburg remained in the Bundesliga.

Son was favored to join the national team for the London Olympics.

As Son expressed his intention to stay out of the Games, the national squad lineup will be unveiled without him on Friday, according to the Korea Football Association.

Receiving attention getting in the lineup are wild-card players who are expected to make up for the team’s weak points without hurting overall teamwork. In the London Olympics, a team may use three wild cards who are over 23 in age.

One of the cards is certain to go to Park Ju-young who plays for Arsenal in the Premier League. Hong Myung-bo, head coach of the Korean Olympic squad, recently arranged for a news conference in which the 27-year-old striker said he would fulfill his military duty, rebutting suspicion about draft dodging. In the news conference, Hong said that he would choose Park for the Olympic team.

It is not sure if the remaining two wild cards will be used, but considering setbacks in some key positions, the possibility of using all three cannot be excluded.

One of the positions needed is a goalkeeper. Hong sought to pick Jung Sung-ryong, currently playing for Suwon Bluewings in the K-League, as a wild card in the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games, but failed to do so due to opposition from his club at that time. The Korean Asian Games squad lost the semifinal match to United Arab Emirates 0-1, exposing a lack of experience on the goalie side.

So, Hong is expected to review the selection of Jung, citing his World Cup experience.

The head coach is also said to be considering naming a wild-card player for defense on behalf of injured Hong Jeong-ho.

The Olympic team will be called up on July 2, and have a test match against New Zealand on July 14 in Seoul before flying to London two days later.

The Korean men’s football team is not a medal favorite in the London Olympics due to its shortage of star players, but may create somes upsets in the group round.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)