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Ki Sung-yueng is sorry to leave
Mark Henderson December 27, 2018
Ki Sung-yueng has said he is sorry that he has to leave Newcastle and go to play in the Asian Cup with South Korea, but he also mentioned that it is a great honour for him to represent his country and as much as he would love to be in two places at the same time; he cannot.
Ki wishes he could be in two places at once
Ki Sung-yueng wishes he could pull off some kind of kids cartoon trickery to chop himself in half so he could leave one half of him in Newcastle and send the other half to play for South Korea. He is obviously a little bit disappointed that he is going to the Asian Cup especially as he has just cemented his place in Newcastle's starting line up.
On the other hand who can resist the chance of winning something for your country even if Chris Sutton said what a lot of European supporters think...that the Asian Cup is 'Mickey Mouse'. People with this attitude need to realise that the Asian Cup is like the European Championships and it is massive for Asia. The players have no control over the dates that it gets organised on.
South Korea hasn't won it for nearly 60 years
South Korea hasn't won the biggest international tournament in Asia for nearly 60 years and will be determined to do so this time around. Ki should be extra determined to win it, as it is unlikely he will be involved in another after this, as time catches up with him.
They'll have a tough time of winning it I would think, though they'll be in the mix for sure, I expect South Korea, Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Australia to all be in the mix when we get round to the business end of the tournament, and that means Newcastle will be without Ki and Muto until February.
It's likely Ki will be back on the Toon bench when he is back
After having to bide his time for a spot in the Newcastle first team, heading off to the Asian Cup will likely see him lose his place with Jonjo Shelvey coming back into the team. If Shelvey performs as all Newcastle fans know he can then when Ki gets back to St. James' Park he will face another struggle to get back into the Newcastle side.
I am sure I have even seen him mention this himself, he knows that his spot won't be there waiting for him when he comes back but the bloke loves South Korea so much he wants to win with them too. Good luck to Ki in the Asian Cup.
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