Inside South Korea’s National Football Team Drama: Lee Kang In Apologizes for Punching Son Heung Min

One day before the match against Jordan in the semi-finals of the 2024 Asian Cup, Lee Kang In (Paris Saint-Germain), Seol Young Woo (Ulsan), and Jung Woo Young (Stuttgart) quickly finished dinner to play table tennis.

Captain Son Heung Min believed they should either go back to their rooms to rest or return to the dining table with everyone else because the noise from Lee Kang In’s group was affecting other players. 

Son gently touched Lee’s cheek: “You should go rest.” Lee felt Son was disrespecting him and pushed Son’s hand away.

Son: “Are you guys here to camp? Focus on the match.”

Lee: “What’s wrong with playing table tennis in the evening?”

Son: “Of course, table tennis isn’t the issue. Time and place are.”

Shouting and cursing ensued. Son angrily grabbed Lee’s collar, and Lee did the same to Son. A fight broke out.

Lee yelled at Son: “The coach hasn’t said anything, so why are you disrupting my break time?”

Lee responded by throwing a punch directly at Son’s face. The restaurant became chaotic. Players got entangled. Security staff intervened. Son dislocated his finger while trying to push away a player who was attempting to intervene.

Son calmed down and extended his hand to Lee: “Focus on tomorrow’s match.” Lee replied: “I’m sorry.”

After the situation calmed down, senior players advised Lee Kang In to show respect, but Lee disregarded it. When a senior player scolded him, Lee exclaimed: “I’ll withdraw from the team.”

Later, all the players gathered around Son Heung Min to discuss and resolve the issue. However, it’s unlikely that the national team, which was already in turmoil, would return to normalcy overnight.

This fight fueled existing conflicts among some players in the team. Some core players went to Coach Klinsmann requesting to drop Lee Kang In from the starting lineup against Jordan: “We’ve decided that building team spirit is the top priority.”

However, Klinsmann disregarded the team’s issues: “Lee Kang In is a player I need to use” and fielded Lee from the start.

Despite the brawl, Son Heung Min passed the ball the most to Lee Kang In, while Lee Kang In passed the least to Son Heung Min during the match.

After losing to Jordan and being eliminated in the semi-finals, Son Heung Min said: “I think I need to consider whether I can continue playing for the national team in the future. Because the coach may no longer consider me, and I don’t know what the future holds.”

At the time of Lee and Son’s fight, Head Coach Klinsmann was present in the hotel restaurant but did not intervene. After the loss to Jordan, Klinsmann merely hinted at team conflicts by posting on Instagram: “The team must unite to achieve dreams.”

Following the incident, Lee Kang In posted an Instagram Story apologizing for not listening to the senior players, acknowledging his disappointing behavior to fans, realizing the attention and expectations, and pledging to be a better person.

The Korean Football Association is currently unreachable after the incident was leaked. It’s known they’re beginning to review contract violations and penalties in case Coach Klinsmann is dismissed.

The conflict within the South Korean national football team seems not only between Lee Kang In and Son Heung Min. Throughout the tournament, players played separately based on age. 

Even during group training, they split into younger players like Lee Kang In, Seol Young Woo, Jung Woo Young, Oh Hyun Kyu (Celtic), Kim Ji Soo (Brentford) vs. older players like Son Heung Min, Kim Jin Soo (Jeonbuk), Kim Young Kwon (Ulsan), Lee Jae Sung (FSV Mainz), Hwang Hee Chan (Wolverhampton), and Kim Min Jae (Bayern Munich).

Not only divided by age, there seemed to be conflicts between foreign and domestic factions. During pre-tournament training, reporters witnessed a foreign-based forward’s dissatisfaction with struggling domestic defenders, kicking the ball hard and expressing anger. 

Last November, after the end of the second round of World Cup 2026 qualifiers, Players active in Europe like Son Heung Min, Kim Min Jae, Hwang Hee Chan, and Lee Kang In chartered a private plane to return to Korea early. However, Coach Klinsmann seems to have not addressed anything.

Football commentator Park Chan Woo said: “The person responsible for managing the biggest players is still the coach, and it’s the Korean Football Association’s fault for appointing an incompetent coach. The president of the Korean Football Association must explain this situation and clarify future measures.”