Singapore lost to Indonesia in the round of 4 of the ASEAN Football Championship and missed the final. As we all know, Singapore is mainly composed of Chinese, Malays and Indians, while most of the players in the Singapore national team are Malays, and there are very few local Chinese, and there is not a single Chinese player on the list of this year's ASEAN Football Championship. However, xiaobian found that there was a name on the list of the Singapore team that did not belong to the above ethnic groups, and after careful investigation, it turned out to be a naturalized soldier, who was Song Ui Young who wore the No. 15 jersey in this tournament.
Song Yiyong was born in 1993 in Incheon, South Korea, and attended Yeouido High School in high school. After graduating in 2012, he joined Suwon Castle, which had not yet been promoted to K1 at that time. However, he did not get a chance at Suwon City, and at the invitation of Lee Lim-sheng, a former South Korean international who was then in charge of the Home Economic Association (now renamed Lion City Mariners) in Singapore, he resolutely went to Singapore to start his football career, and as a result, he kicked for 9 years, giving The Golden Age to Singapore. As Song Has not represented the Korean national team, it is feasible for him to naturalize and represent Singapore, but only if he needs to obtain a Singapore passport in order to become a Singapore citizen. Finally, in 2020, after 3 unsuccessful applications, he finally obtained Singapore permanent resident status and became a Singapore citizen on 20 August 2021, obtaining a Singapore passport and being able to represent the Singapore national team. He made his debut in a friendly match against Kyrgyzstan in November, becoming Singapore's first naturalized soldier since 2008's Chinese player Qiu Li. He was later named in the ASEAN Football Championship squad and scored his first international goal in the second leg of the round of 4 against Indonesia.
Originally Singapore is a country of immigrants, it is not unusual for the country to have naturalized soldiers, and with the current prevalence of naturalized soldiers in football, Song Yiyong's naturalization into Singapore is not worth discussing, but because he is Korean, it adds a little fun to this matter. Since South Korea does not recognize dual citizenship, Korean nationals who wish to naturalize in other countries must first renounce Their Korean citizenship. As we all know, Koreans have a strong sense of nationality, in addition to developed countries such as Europe and the United States, native Koreans are basically opposed to naturalization in other countries. To renounce Korean nationality is seen as a big rebellion in the eyes of the older generation of Koreans, even if the players themselves are willing to give up Their Korean nationality, but under the opposition of elders and relatives and friends, most Korean players dare not give up their nationality. The move to renounce South Korean nationality has a better chance of being banned by the Korean football circle and sports circles, which will have a great impact on the future search for jobs in South Korea.
In fact, in other sports, South Korea already has "import" and "export" naturalized soldiers. In terms of output, the most famous is short-track speed skater Ahn Hyun-so, who switched to Represent Russia in 2011 over disagreements with South Korean sports officials. In terms of input, the basketball team also naturalized the American player Luo Jian'er to represent the Korean team, which shows that South Korea has gradually opened up to naturalized soldiers, but in football, South Korea is still relatively conservative, and there are no cases of import and output. Xiaobian has searched for information on the Internet, but still can't find cases of football players born in South Korea who have transferred their nationality to represent other countries, so Song Yiyong is likely to be the first native Korean footballer to transfer to represent other countries.