Son Heung-min feels “like a young boy again” as he prepares to represent South Korea for a fourth time at the World Cup finals.

South Korea begin their Group A campaign on June 11 against Czechia, the second game of the tournament after co-hosts Mexico take on South Africa in the opening match.

This will be South Korea’s 12th World Cup, the most of any Asian nation.

This will also be their 11th consecutive appearance at the finals, stretching back to 1986 – only Brazil (23), Germany (19), Argentina (14) and Spain (13) are on a longer run of consecutive participations.

Son has been directly involved in four of their last 10 World Cup goals, scoring three times and delivering one assist. He also recorded the most goal involvements for South Korea during the 2026 qualifying campaign (14 – 10 goals + four assists).

“I’m very happy to be back on the World Cup pitch, which is something I dreamed of from a very young age,” Son said in Wednesday’s pre-match news conference.

“Whether it’s my first World Cup or fourth World Cup, I feel like a young boy again. This is the stage of dreams.

드디어 시작된 우리의 월드컵, 그리고 승리를 향한 첫 도전

한계를 넘어 하나된 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐬

2026 FIFA 북중미 월드컵 조별리그 1차전
vs. 체코 6/12(금) 11:00
@과달라하라 스타디움
한국시간 기준
JTBC, KBS2, 치지직#대한민국 #축구국가대표팀 #FIFAWorldCup2026 pic.twitter.com/QxeI2w22Ao

— theKFA (@theKFA) June 11, 2026

“It’s not something that can be expressed in one word. Whether it’s the first, fourth or sixth World Cup, our mindset must be the same when we participate in the World Cup.

“The atmosphere, right from the beginning now, is no problem at all. And whenever I see my teammates working so hard for the team, for Korea, sometimes I even have to calm them down.

“We’re very prepared and I hope that we will get a good result because I’m sure they [his teammates] deserve it.”

This will be the first World Cup encounter between South Korea and Czechia. Their three previous meetings all came in friendlies, resulting in one win apiece and one draw.

The most recent clash occurred a decade ago in June 2016, a 2-1 victory for South Korea in Prague.

South Korea were the only unbeaten side in the AFC qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup – they won 11 and drew five of their 16 matches.