SON TO ESCAPE COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE IN KOREA

Tottenham Hotspurs would be elated to hear that their star forward Son Heung-min would rejoin them soon after escaping military service with a super performance that helped South Korea lift the Asian Games.

The talented skipper led the Korean side following their poor World Cup spell to go on to feature at the Asian Games knowing he had to win it to pacify the fans and help him escape the mandatory military service back home. Had things not gone to plan, the player faced the threat of abandoning his football career at the peak for the service back home.

The 26-year old recently signed a five year extension with Spurs but they had to permit him feature in the Under-23 tournament that was not even recognized by FIFA. Son thanked the team, his coach Mauricio Pochettino and his teammates after they won the title, defeating Japan 2-1 in extra time on Saturday.

Son was one of the three permitted over aged players present in the team, and determined to make a mark in the sands of time and make up for the time he could not serve his country. If he had to leave for 21 months for the service, his contract would have been cancelled and getting such opportunities as this again would have been hard.

He is grateful for the support of the entire Spurs family, allowing him to go on the much needed trip. His former club Bayer Leverkusen did not allow him go in 2014, when Korea also won gold. He cried like a baby when a supposed lowly Honduras sent them packing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. After what happened at the World Cup in Russia, nothing short of a gold medal would have helped his cause at getting pardoned.