Military man: Son Heung-Min completes basic training, will return to London in a week

He’s out! Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-Min has been released from his stint with the South Korean Marines after completing a period of basic training, formally fulfilling his mandatory and compulsory period of service. Spurs made the formal announcement about his imminent return to London on their social media channels.

Sonny had earned an exemption from the full two year military service period, required by all South Korean males before they turn 28, by virtue of helping lead Korea’s national football team to an Asian Games gold medal back in 2018. However, even though he didn’t have to cut his football career short by two years, he still had to complete boot camp. With football shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic and South Korea doing very well in that regard thank you very much, this was an ideal time for Sonny to check that item off his to-do list.

We had previously seen a photo of Sonny with a military haircut, but otherwise the Korean military had kept Sonny and the rest of the recruits out of the military spotlight. That’s understandable considering Son is one of the biggest cultural stars in South Korea and the military wanted to keep people away from their base on the island of Jeju while he was there.

But how did he DO while in boot camp? Thankfully, we have an answer to that too, from Korean outlet Naver Sports. (Translation courtesy of /r/coys)

Son received a perfect score of 100 in mental evaluation, and also received excellent grades in all subjects, including hitting 10 out of 10 shots on the target in the shooting training. Son Heung-min trained in a sincere manner without exception, and training instructors rated him as a well-mannered trainee, according to military officials.

Son Heung-min, who entered the training center on the 20th of last month, has been training for three weeks in Marine Corps mental and combat training, personal firearms shooting, bayonet, CBR, gun assembly, individual combat, single armed marching, and first aid.

An official of the Marine Corps said, “Although he is not active in the Marine Corps, I hope that He will not forget the invincible spirit of the Marine Corps that I emphasized during the training and become a stronger and better player.”

Hell yeah.

Son will now return to London with a raft full of new skills and probably fit as hell after having to do things like long marches loaded down with gear. My guess is we’ll be seeing a feature on SpursTV about his experience the past few weeks. In the meantime, please enjoy this gallery of photos provided by the Korean Marines of Sonny at the conclusion of his service including one of him POSING IN FRONT OF A GOSH-DANG TANK.

God I love that man. *brisk salute*

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• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images
• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images
• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images
• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images
• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images
• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images
• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images
• Photo by Republic of Korea Marine Corps via Getty Images