The national soccer team led by coach Jurgen Klinsmann (59) has been struggling since its departure. As noise arose within the squad rather than performance, ‘harmony’ emerged as the task at hand.
On the 1st, Kim Min-jae (27, Naples) dismissed rumors of a disagreement with ‘captain’ Son Heung-min (31, Tottenham). Kim Min-jae said through his agency, Orange Ball, “I was short-minded about Son Heung-min and I was wrong.”
The incident started with Kim Min-jae’s remarks. After a friendly match against Uruguay on the 28th of last month, Kim Min-jae faced the reporters and said, “I want to focus on my team rather than the national team,” suggesting that he would retire from the national team. As the controversy grew, Kim Min-jae evolved on Instagram, saying, “The meaning of hardship was misrepresented.”
On the same day, Son Heung-min also shared his feelings on Instagram after completing his A match 2 series. As usual, it was an article that contained pride in running with the Taegeuk mark as a national team member.
Since then, Kim Min-jae and Son Heung-min’s Instagram ‘follow-up’ has been cut off. It was easy to spot because the eyes of soccer fans were all focused on Kim Min-jae. Fans analyzed that Min-jae Kim blocked Heung-min Son after seeing that each other had been unfollowed. This is because if one of them blocks them, they stop following each other. Circumstances put weight on the possibility that Kim Min-jae felt that he had ‘sniped’ himself after reading Son Heung-min’s writing. However, just a few hours later, the two were in a state of ‘arming each other’ again.
Still, the controversy did not subside. In the end, Kim Min-jae admitted that it happened because of a ‘misunderstanding’. He confessed, “Heung-min hyung always posts such a post after the national team convocation, but because of the interview I did the day before, I misunderstood and acted outside of common sense.”
There was also a view that the ’96 line’ (born in 1996 + peers) in the national team, including Kim Min-jae, created a faction. Some fans pointed out that members of the 96 Line did not ‘like’ Son Heung-min’s Instagram post. There was a story of reasonable suspicion because they were active, such as leaving comments on each other’s posts.
However, Kim Min-jae firmly refuted this, saying, “It is a really embarrassing story that the 96 lines in the national team are forming a faction,” and “I have nothing more to say in this regard.”
While Kim Min-jae, the party to the incident, said, “I resolved the misunderstanding with Son Heung-min,” it seems that this incident ended with a simple happening. However, fans were disappointed as it seemed that Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae, the main players of the soccer team, had a conflict. It is also true that doubts have accumulated in the relationship between the national team players. In the end, Klins Manho had the mission of ‘reconciliation’ from the beginning. 메이저놀이터
Klinsmanho, who made his first debut in a friendly match against Colombia on the 24th of last month (2-2 draw), impressively displayed quick transfers between offense and defense and strong forward pressure. In the World Cup return match against Uruguay four days later, they unfortunately lost 1-2, but the fans responded favorably, saying, ‘The match is really fun.’ In terms of his performance, he expected the future, but from the start, noise arose in an unexpected place. It is up to the players, Klinsmanho, to build trust again.