South Korea manager Jurgen Klinsmann said it is "about time" the team ended their 64-year wait for an Asian Cup title after the German named his squad for next month's tournament in Qatar.
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Leading the 26-player squad is captain and star player Son Heung-min, who has rediscovered his best form this season at Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, where he is also skipper.
Son will be ably supported in attack by in-form Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Hwang Hee-chan, who scored his 10th Premier League goal of the season against Brentford on Wednesday.
Also in the South Korea squad are Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae and 22-year-old Paris Saint-Germain attacking midfielder Lee Kang-in. The Adnoc Pro League has one representative in the setup in the form of Al Ain midfielder Park Yong-woo.
South Korea are perennial heavyweights of Asian football but they have not won the continent's premier international tournament since 1960. However, Klinsmann is confident he has the players to end the long drought when the tournament kicks off on January 12.
"It's 64 years – 64 years is a long time for Korea. It's about time that we get this done," he said.
South Korea have been drawn in Group E and will face Malaysia, Jordan and Bahrain in the first round.
They lost 1-0 to eventual champions Qatar in the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup in the UAE.
Klinsmann, a World Cup winner with Germany in 1990, will have one of the strongest squads in the tournament in Qatar and he said he could "see it in their eyes that they are hungry for it".
"I have a good feeling because they're doing well at their clubs," he said. "They're healthy, they're fit, they're ambitious and they're very hungry. This is the foundation for playing a good tournament."
Son will be appearing at his fourth Asian Cup and was part of the South Korea team that lost to hosts Australia in the 2015 final.
Hwang scored twice in Wolves' 4-1 win over Brentford to sit sixth in the Premier League's list of leading goal-scorers this season.
Lee is also making a splash after moving to Paris from Mallorca in the summer, and Klinsmann described him as "a flower that starts to bloom".
"We have a lot of different pieces in that roster and that makes us one of the favourites for the Asian Cup," said Klinsmann.
"We have to fine-tune these elements over the next couple of weeks and then go into the tournament with confidence."
Klinsmann was unable to select Hwang Ui-jo, who has been suspended by South Korea because of a police investigation into allegations regarding his ex-girlfriend.
"It's very difficult for us coaches to deal with that because it's not in our power," said Klinsmann.
South Korea have fond recent memories of tournament football in Qatar having reached the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup. They advanced from a tough group containing Portugal and Uruguay thanks to a 91st-minute winning goal from Hwang in their final group game against the Portuguese.
The 2023 Asian Cup was initially set to take place in China, although Covid-related logistics meant the tournament was moved to Qatar. The tournament was then postponed to January 2024 due to the summer temperatures in the Gulf and Qatar's involvement in the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup.
It will open with the hosts' match against Lebanon on January 12 at Lusail Stadium.
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
CHELSEA SQUAD
Arrizabalaga, Bettinelli, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chalobah, Sarr, Azpilicueta, James, Kenedy, Alonso, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Havertz, Lukaku.
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