South Korea's Jung Woo-young celebrates after scoring the second goal during the men's football quarterfinal match between South Korea and Uzbekistan at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Thursday afternoon.
As the Korean Asian Games soccer team won gold at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, Jung Woo-young's club VfB Stuttgart (Germany) celebrated.
The U24 team, led by Hwang Sun-hong, defeated Japan 2-1 in the men's football final at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China on Sunday (July 7).
With the victory, South Korea's players, including top scorer Jung Woo-young (8 goals), will be exempted from military service in addition to the Asian Games title.
German media outlet ZVW, which covers the city of Stuttgart, wrote on Aug. 8, “Good news for Stuttgart, who must have watched the results with bated breath during the tournament. Now Stuttgart will not have to lose Jung Woo-young for one year and six months,” ZVW reported.
The outlet continued, “Men in South Korea cannot avoid military service. This is true even for athletes like Jung Woo-young, who was fortunate enough to win a gold medal at the Asian Games, which significantly reduced his service from one year and six months to three weeks.”
According to the German edition of Sky Sports, Stuttgart acquired Jung from Freiburg (Germany) this season with a clause that required Freiburg to pay an additional €1 million (approximately $1.4 billion) if Jung received a military exemption.
However, even with the extra money, Stuttgart has the greater benefit of utilizing Jung without the restrictions of military service. Jung is under contract with Stuttgart until 2026. 19가이드03
