Tottenham Hotspur star Heung-Min Son recently returned from a month away with his country at the Asia Games, where they won the gold medal in football.
Sonny captained South Korea to this historic win, which gave him and his team mates exemption from military service.
In Korea, all able-bodied men are required to complete 21 months of military service before their 28th birthday, which is under two years away for the Tottenham winger.
However, exemption is granted to a few sportsmen who achieve great honours with their national team, such as winning at the Asia Games.
Now Sonny has returned to North London and his Tottenham team mates, and is ready to kick on through the season.
Son has already featured positively in a few games since his return, including an impressive cameo against Watford in the cup this week.
The South Korean is expected to start the game away to Huddersfield today, especially with fellow stars Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli out injured.
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Son told SkySports: “Some players get out of the army and don’t care anymore. I don’t want to do that, I want to be even hungrier and work even harder. It always pays off.
“I’m very grateful and thankful and felt sorry for my team-mates and the fans [during the Asia Cup]. I could feel they missed me and I missed them as well. But we won the cup, I’m very happy, and I was very proud to come back to show the fans.
“It meant a lot to South Korea. No team has won it twice in a row. We’ve done it though, and our country is very proud of us and I’m very proud of our country.
“I wasn’t thinking about military service, the first thing was to go there and win the tournament. Of course, I wondered in the tournament if I was in a good position, but my goal wasn’t to avoid the army. Now, I’m in a good position of course, but I’m still hungry, and work really hard to make sure I don’t disappoint the fans.
“Of course [I was prepared for it] – I didn’t have a choice. I would have to do it. But I don’t want to think about it, of course. I just want to focus on football now. What can be better? I come here, train every morning in a wonderful training ground.
“Now I’m back, of course I want to give a present to the team and the fans after coming back from the Asian Games, get some confidence back and of course, it’s more important we win, but I will try if I play to score some goals to get the feeling back.”
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