Son Heungmin Warming Up... Controversy Over Harsh Remarks: "They Haven't Even Been to the Military" [2026 World Cup]

Man in Video Says "He's Running Like He's in the Military"
JTBC Explains "Voices of Unidentified Individuals Were Captured as Ambient Sound"

An audio recording containing inappropriate remarks has sparked controversy after being included in a video showing the South Korean national football team's training session.

The video, which has been spreading across online communities and social networking services (SNS) on June 9, features scenes from the South Korean national football team's training session that was released through JTBC's YouTube channel.

Ahead of the 2026 North American World Cup, a controversy has arisen over inappropriate remarks made during a public training session of the South Korean national football team held in Mexico on the 7th. Screenshot from SNS

The footage shows the public training session held on June 7 at the Chivas Valle Verde training ground in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. The video includes scenes of captain Son Heungmin and other players jogging as part of their warm-up.

In the video, one man is heard saying to Son Heungmin, "Are you running like a platoon leader just because you're the captain?" and "He's running like he's in the military."

Another man then targets the national team players, criticizing them with harsh slang and profanity, saying, "These guys haven't even been to the military, damn," and "These XX don't even know the first thing about the military."

A woman at the scene tried to stop their conversation, pointing out that their voices might be captured by the camera. However, the conversation continued.

As the video spread online, suspicions arose that the people making the remarks might be members of the press present at the scene. Some netizens pointed out that the mocking comments directed at national team players were inappropriate.

JTBC's explanation.

As the controversy grew, JTBC reportedly set the original video to private and re-uploaded an edited version with the problematic remarks muted.

JTBC explained, "Due to the nature of the camera, surrounding sounds are picked up quite loudly," adding, "The session was an open training, so there were many people at the site, and various unidentified voices were recorded as background noise." The company continued, "The noise was not detected on site, but after learning about the issue through comments later, we muted that part of the audio."

However, the controversy has continued to intensify as screenshots of JTBC's explanation have been shared online. The identities of the individuals who made the controversial remarks have not been revealed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.