Park Seung-soo, at the center of controversy over "tilted military discharge cap and tongue-out gesture at awards ceremony," scores first goal of the season for U21 team with 'dance celebration'

*This content was translated by AI.View Original

Park Seung-soo, 19, who became the center of controversy for wearing a military discharge cap at an angle while taking photos immediately after winning the gold medal in men's football at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and sticking out his tongue at the awards ceremony, scored his first goal of the season as a member of Newcastle United's Under-21 (U21) team.

Park Seung-soo shook the opponent's net with a curled shot using his right foot in the 25th minute of the second half in the match against Sunderland's U21 team in Round 6 of the English Premier League 2 (U21 league), held at St James' Park in Newcastle, UK on the 27th (Korean time). It was his first goal in three matches of the Premier League 2 season and his first score in seven months since the match against Blackburn Rovers' U21 team in March.

Immediately after scoring, Park Seung-soo enjoyed his joy by performing his signature 'dance celebration.' The Newcastle club praised it as a "beautiful goal" while uploading videos of Park Seung-soo's scoring scene and goal celebration through the club's social media (SNS) account. Park Seung-soo also posted the dance celebration video uploaded by the club on his personal SNS account.

It is something that should be celebrated, but public opinion in SNS comments and elsewhere remains unfavorable. This is because he was at the center of fierce criticism immediately after the Asian Games gold medal. At the time, a video was released showing Park Seung-soo wearing a military discharge cap at an angle and celebrating after it was thrown by a fan from the stands following the men's football gold medal, and he became the center of controversy for posting photos taken while wearing the cap in the locker room.

He received fierce criticism along with Lee Ki-hyuk (Gangwon FC) and Yang Min-hyuk (KVC Westerlo), who were also involved in controversy over interviews focused solely on the military service exemption benefits obtained through the Asian Games gold medal. Subsequently, his action of sticking out his tongue at the camera at the gold medal awards ceremony also became a source of controversy later on.

Following the military discharge cap controversy, Park Seung-soo apologized via SNS, stating, "I would like to apologize to all fans regarding the photos I posted on SNS immediately after the final match. I am sincerely sorry to those who felt discomfort due to my actions." He added, "The joy of winning the gold medal and the overwhelming emotion were too great, and I took photos and posted them on SNS without deeply considering the meaning of the cap at that moment."

He continued, "However, I never had any intention to mock those who are fulfilling their military service obligations or to take their efforts lightly. I have also never taken the meaning of the national team emblem lightly even once." He added, "From now on, I will show a more responsible attitude so that I can live up to the support and expectations of the people. Once again, I sincerely apologize to everyone who felt discomfort due to my rash actions." However, despite this apology, voices criticizing Park Seung-soo and other Asian Games national team players remain strong, and recently, public opinion calling for the abolition of military service exemption benefits associated with Asian Games gold medals has also intensified.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original