South Korea talisman Son leads squad as they aim to end their 64-year Asian Cup wait in Qatar
South Korea manager Jurgen Klinsmann said it is “about time” the team ended their 64year wait for an Asian Cup title after the German named his squad for next month’s tournament in Qatar.
Leading the 26-player squad is captain and star man Son Heung-min, who has rediscovered his best form this season at Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, where he is also skipper.
Son will be ably supported in attack by in-form Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Hwang Hee-chan, who scored his 10th Premier League goal of the season against Brentford on Wednesday.
Also in the South Korea squad are Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae and 22-year-old Paris Saint-Germain attacking midfielder Lee Kang-in.
The Adnoc Pro League has one representative in the setup in the form of Al Ain midfielder Park Yong-woo.
South Korea are perennial heavyweights of Asian football but they have not won the continent’s premier international tournament since 1960. However, Klinsmann is confident he has the players to end the long drought when the tournament kicks off on January 12.
“It’s 64 years – 64 years is a long time for Korea. It’s about time that we get this done,” Klinsmann said.
South Korea have been drawn in Group E and will face Malaysia, Jordan and Bahrain in the first round. They lost 1-0 to eventual champions Qatar in the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup in the UAE.
Klinsmann, a World Cup winner with Germany in 1990, will have one of the strongest squads in the tournament and he said he could “see it in their eyes that they are hungry for it”.
“I have a good feeling because they’re doing well at their clubs,” he said. “They’re healthy, they’re fit, they’re ambitious and they’re very hungry. This is the foundation for playing a good tournament.”
Son will be appearing at his fourth Asian Cup and was part of the South Korea team that lost to hosts Australia in the 2015 final.
Hwang scored twice in Wolves’ 4-1 win over Brentford to sit sixth in the Premier League’s list of leading goal-scorers this season. Lee is also making a splash after moving to Paris from Mallorca in the summer, and Klinsmann described him as “a flower that starts to bloom”.
“We have a lot of different pieces in that roster and that makes us one of the favourites,” said Klinsmann.
“We have to fine-tune these elements over the next couple of weeks and then go into the tournament with confidence.”
South Korea have fond recent memories of tournament football in Qatar having reached the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup. They advanced from a tough group containing Portugal and Uruguay thanks to a 91st-minute winning goal from Hwang in their final group game against the Portuguese.
The 2023 Asian Cup was initially set to take place in China, although Covid-related logistics meant it was moved to Qatar. The tournament was then postponed to January 2024 due to the summer temperatures in the Gulf and Qatar’s involvement in the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup. It will open with the hosts’ match against Lebanon on January 12.