- Jul 18, 2010
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Could literally destroy South Korean football and sport in general to ruin their best athlete in history’s career in his prime, what kind of message would it send to anyone looking to develop South Korean talent and young Koreans themselves, it’s not the same as musicians.
I live in Singapore at the moment and it's the same here. There is currently a young kid at Fulham who is Singaporean and by all accounts is the best footballer Singapore has ever had, and recently the Deputy Prime Minster praised France's World Cup victory by saying that their football system encourages and supports developing young peoples strengths. However, despite the requests of the kid and his family to defer his National Service (which like Korea is for 2 years and mandatory for all males) the government has contradicted this position and have refused the deferment. The attitude in Asia is that it's very much country first - all personal/individual interests are secondary when it comes to the strength and progress of the nation. It's very different culturally compared to the west, but everyone here just accepts that it's a part of life and to serve the country is something that's expected of them.