One of the main impressions of the recently concluded Asian Cup is the continuation of the South Korean ‘curse.’ Although, along with Japan, it is historically considered the best football country on the continent, South Korea has not won a continental trophy since 1960, and the reasons for the new failure do not lie in any ‘bad luck charm’ but in broken interpersonal relations within the team, it became clear after intriguing findings from the English media.The Korean Football Association has confirmed that the national team captain, Heung-min Son, injured his finger in an argument with his teammates before the shocking semi-final defeat against Jordan (2-0). The British tabloid The Sun reported that the conflict arose when 22-year-old Paris Saint-Germain winger Lee Kang-in finished the team dinner too quickly and left the table to play table tennis. It enraged Son, and after the verbal fight, there was also a physical confrontation, from which the Tottenham star came out with an injured finger.##NAJAVA_MECA_7877186##An unidentified source said that Son first asked his younger teammates to sit down and that he was met with “disrespectful words” as feedback. The fight spilled into the dining room within seconds and one group of players separated. In an attempt to calm everything down, Son sprained his finger.The table tennis match of the young players had already started while the dinner was still going on, and when Lee (as de facto one of the three most important players of the team) started to join them, Son heard a loud noise from the next room. When the young footballers did not accept the captain’s suggestion to keep quiet, a “fuss” arose. At the height of the tension, Son grabbed Lee by the collar and was punched in response, a well-informed source told The Sun.After the aforementioned conflict, several senior players led by Son asked coach Jurgen Klinsmann to leave Lee out of the starting line-up for the semi-finals, which the German did not do. The football player of the French champion played against Jordan and drowned in the complete lethargy of one of the biggest favorites for the continental throne, and Son played the game with a bandaged finger.After the match was over, Son Heung Min looked very devastated. The brawl incident with Kang In Lee occurred before the match against Jordan pic.twitter.com/3V9pwqrlkh— FOOTBALLFANSSTUFF (@officialffsnews) February 14, 2024 Relegation will likely culminate in Klinsmann’s resignation. Recently, he has received calls to step down from the national team’s helm due to his lack of leadership. The incident the night before the loss indicates the team’s chemistry problems. The South Korean Football Association will discuss the fate of the German football legend at a meeting on Thursday. He has already left for the US and will attend the meeting via video call, which hints at what the epilogue will be like.This is another proof that the problem of vanity in sports is widespread in any part of the globe and is far from being unique to African athletes, as we often tend to think. This has now been shown by the South Koreans who are generally considered less temperamental.
