Players to watch at the Asian Cup: Son and Kim take centre stage
Son Heung-Min (South Korea)
The biggest star in Asian football is set to drag South Korea to victory after decades without triumph. Although the country has long been one of the favourites, it has only won the Asian Cup twice, in 1956 and 1960.
During this millennium South Korea have finished third three times, lost the final once, and most recently finished in the quarter-finals. Son is the captain and leader of the team and is expected to score goals. He needs to play just 20 more matches to become the player with the most starts for his country and is 19 goals short of being their top scorer.
Takefusa Kubo (Japan)
The Japanese winger was once considered one of the great talents in world football, which is why Real Madrid signed him, but he didn't get as many opportunities in the side as he would have liked. After a couple of loan spells, he eventually landed at rivals Real Sociedad and it couldn't have gone better.
He had a great start to the current campaign but has been showing his qualities for a while now. With six league goals and three assists so far this season, he should surpass his tally from the previous one which ended with nine goals and four assists. There has also been speculation about a transfer to a bigger club.
Mehdi Taremi (Iran)
Although the Iranian team doesn't impress much on paper, it has two 'diamonds' in attack. The first is Taremi, who has long been one of Europe's top scorers but is often an overlooked player. In 2019, Taremi was bought from Qatar's Al-Gharafa by Portugal's Rio Ave and the following season he moved to Porto, for whom he's scored 61 league goals in 114 games.
In his last two seasons, he has scored at least 20 goals (20 and 22). He has made the Portuguese league's team of the season four times in a row and has twice been its top scorer. Due to his goal-scoring exploits, Inter Milan are reportedly interested in signing him.
Kim Min-Jae (South Korea)
As much as South Korea rely on Son up front, there are equally high expectations of Kim at the back. The defender has developed into one of the best centre-backs in the world. He was virtually infallible during Napoli's journey to the title and is playing just as well for Bayern now.
The fact that he offers great experience is a testament to his importance. He is the only member of the defence to play outside his native country, with one exception. That is Kim Ji-Soo, but he is only in Brentford's reserve team. His call-up is all the more surprising as he has not made a single appearance for the senior national team.
Kaoru Mitoma (Japan)
Japan are looking to win their fifth Asian Cup title and improve on the last two editions, having first crashed out in the quarter-finals and most recently losing the final against Qatar. Brighton's skilful winger, who has been linked with a move to Manchester City, should help significantly, but there is one problem.
Mitoma is not fully fit at the moment. According to Brighton coach Roberto De Zerbi, he shouldn't be seen on the field for about a month. Mitoma has not played for Brighton since December 21st when he withdrew prematurely from the game against Crystal Palace. De Zerbi was unsure at the turn of the year whether he would be able to recover and play in the tournament.
Hwang Hee-Chan (South Korea)
The striker is having a great season for Wolves . He has already scored ten goals in the twenty games he has played and needs just two more to equal his lifetime best 2016/17 campaign in which he scored twelve times for Salzburg. He also has three league assists to his name.
Together with Son, this duo will cause terror to any defensive line. However, Hwang needs to translate his club form to the national team, as he has scored a relatively low number of goals - 12 - in the 60 games he has played for South Korea.
Sardar Azmoun (Iran)
Iran are also eyeing gold, which would be the fourth in their history and the first since 1976. There have been four third-place finishes since then, the last of which was a semi-final. Apart from Taremi, Azmoun, who plays for AS Roma, will create problems for the opposition's defences.
With 49 goals, he is the third top scorer in the history of the national team. He is unlikely to catch up with the legendary Ali Daei (108), but he is just one goal behind Karim Bagheri's 50. Azmoun signed for Bayer Leverkusen two seasons ago having previously played for Zenit Saint Petersburg
Takehiro Tomiyasu (Japan)
The Japanese full-back is one of a number of talented players playing for a big club. Although his name has been linked with the possibility of a loan move or even a transfer, he looks set to stay at the Emirates Stadium.
Tomiyasu has been laboured with injury problems during the current campaign, but he has played a respectable thirteen Premier League games and has played five times in the Champions League group stage. He even received the Gunners' Player of the Month award for October, as voted by the fans.
Lee Kang-In (South Korea)
The young midfielder brings creativity from French side PSG, where he moved to during the summer after quality performances for Mallorca. So far, he has appeared in 16 games in all competitions with a tally of three goals and two assists.
He said goodbye to the team with the winning goal in the domestic Super Cup against Toulouse.
Wataru Endo (Japan)
At 30 years old, he is the second oldest player in the Japanese team and also the captain. It's no coincidence that he was picked up by Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp in the summer.
Although Endo is only 178 centimetres tall, he can play as a centre-back in addition to his primary position as a defensive midfielder. The former Stuttgart player is physically fit and a quality player for important midfield duels, where he does a lot of often invisible work.
