South Korean national soccer team captain Son Heung-min and four teammates said Thursday they had talked through their differences, while denying reports that some of them had threatened to quit the team to press their demands.
Son, Lee Jae-sung, Hwang Hee-chan, Hwang In-beom and Kim Min-jae issued the joint statement through the Korea Football Association during the team’s training camp in Doha, Qatar. They opened by apologizing to fans for causing concern.
“It is entirely untrue that (some players) tried to push for certain demands by making their retirement from the national team conditional,” the players said.
“We want to make it clear that everything stemmed from a shared perception that the national team should improve, rather than any personal divisions or disagreements over individual interests,” they said.
During a training session in Doha ahead of Friday’s friendly against Saudi Arabia, Son and Kim bumped shoulders and smiled at each other. All five players were named to the squad for the Saudi Arabia match and Tuesday’s friendly against Qatar.
Speculation about a rift intensified after South Korea’s Oct. 6 match against Uzbekistan.
Media reports said Hwang Hee-chan, Hwang In-beom and Kim had indicated they might retire from international play amid a dispute over the captaincy.
The reports described tensions between the three players, who were all born in 1996, and older teammates including Son and Lee, who were born in 1992.
Hwang In-beom later said he had no intention of retiring from the national team, but speculation continued. The issue came up during a parliamentary audit on Oct. 21, when Rep. Jung Yeon-wook of the People Power Party claimed that some players had referred to Son as “that person” instead of by his name.
Before the squad gathered in Qatar, interim head coach Robert Moreno visited Hwang In-beom in Portugal and met with Hwang Hee-chan and Kim, who play for German clubs. He subsequently named all three to the squad for the two friendlies.
Moreno said he had weighed the players’ commitment to the national team alongside their individual abilities.
He also said he had spoken to the players as a group about the issues raised after the Uzbekistan match and found that they shared a goal of making the team more competitive and winning as many matches as possible.
The five players said they had discussed their views on the national team when they gathered for the training camp.
“We were able to understand each other better by listening to and explaining our positions in person, particularly on points that we had not fully understood before,” the players said.
“We will respect each other’s roles and responsibilities and trust one another, setting a good example for the players who will follow us and help take Korean soccer to the next level.”
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