“The most important match in Lee Kang-in’s career” Forbes is also interested in whether Korea will win the gold medal

Forbes, a famous economic magazine, also paid attention to whether the Korean Asian Games men’s soccer team, including Lee Kang-in, won a gold medal.

The economic magazine ‘Forbes’ reported on the 6th (Korean time), “This week, Lee Kang-in will face a striker who plays at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. This game is the most important game in Lee Kang-in’s career.”

Korea is just one step away from winning its third consecutive Asian Games gold medal. They defeated Kuwait, Thailand, Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, and China in order, and in the semifinals held on the 4th, they beat Uzbekistan 2-1 thanks to Jung Woo-young’s multiple goals.

For Korean athletes, the Asian Games gold medal means more than just winning. Athletes who win gold medals at the Asian Games are given special military service exemption. This is a benefit that almost all soccer players need because they are eligible to perform alternative service while continuing their careers instead of enlisting in the military.

A gold medal in the Asian Games is also important to athletes playing in Europe. Active enlistment in a European team is no different from the risk of having to give up a player from the team without a transfer fee. This is an issue directly related to the player’s price and the scope of movement in the transfer market.

Minjae Kim, who won a gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, is a good example. Kim Min-jae became a Bayern Munich player this summer for a transfer fee of 50 million euros (about 71.2 billion won), but if the barrier of active duty enlistment had remained for him, Bayern would not have been willing to pay that amount.

The same goes for Son Heung-min. If Son Heung-min had not won the gold medal in that competition, he would have had to enlist until 2019, and in that case, he would not have enjoyed honors such as the 2020 Puskas Award and the 2021-2022 English Premier League 바카라사이트(EPL) top scorer.

‘Forbes’ also knew this well. Explaining why the Asian Games gold medal is important to Lee Kang-in, he said, “If he had not won the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games, Son Heung-min would likely not have won the Puskas Award and the EPL Golden Boot (top scorer), and Kim Min-jae would not have gone to Naples. Hee-chan Hwang also gave examples saying, “He would have gone to the K-League instead of Wolverhampton Wanderers.”

The media explained the meaning of the gold medal to Lee Kang-in, saying, “Lee Kang-in is a player who can reach the highest level if he is not enlisted or injured.” He also listed players currently playing in Europe, such as Jung Woo-young, Hong Hyun-seok, and Lee Han-beom, and emphasized that the color of the medal will determine whether they will continue their careers in Europe.