National team head coach Cho Kwang-rae and U-23 head coach Hong Myung-bo have made an agreement regarding Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-yong.
The young midfielder will participate in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games with Hong’s U-23 squad in November but will not play with the national team in January for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar.
Cho Kwang-rae wants to win the Asian Cup for the first time in fifty-one years. To achieve this, Cho wanted to employ Ki Sung-yong in his midfield where his passing and vision would be very useful. Alternatively, Hong Myung-bo also wants to win the gold medal at the Asian Games. Despite Ki’s young age, he’s an experienced player having played in the World Cup and would be helpful in the upcoming youth tournament.
The two national coaches agreed that obtaining military exemption by winning the gold medal in the Asian Games would be beneficial to the national team. The two coaches had to decide which tournament Ki Sung-yong would play in when Celtic allowed him to play in only one of the two tournaments. Ki playing in both tournaments is not realistically possible as his club won’t release him for two whole months during the season.
Hong Myung-bo once yielded Ki Sung-yong in the past. Hong wanted to take Ki to Egypt for the 2009 U-20 World Cup but couldn’t because Ki’s commitments to the national team and the Olympics team. This time with Ki Sung-yong in his squad, Hong can assemble an impressive midfield with Ki Sung-yong, Gu Ja-cheol and wild-card Kim Jung-woo.
Hong plans to announce the provisional Asian Games squad on the 10th and his final squad on the 20th.
