Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-Min became a year younger overnight this week after his native South Korea formally scrapped its unusual traditional method of counting citizens' ages.
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The law was passed in December by newly elected Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, who had previously campaigned for the country's unorthodox method of counting age to be abolished in order to bring it in line with the rest of the world. The edict finally came into effect on Wednesday, at which point every member of the Korean populace effectively became either one or two years younger in unison.
The traditional Korean age system dates back centuries and saw the gestation period of all babies included in their age, deeming them to be one year old at birth. Every person then became another year older every Jan. 1 -- even those babies born in December, who would become two years old despite having been born perhaps only a week or two prior.
The common international system of counting age (a baby being deemed zero at birth and having another year added to their age annually from there on) had also been in place in South Korea since the 1960s but was exclusively used for official purposes, such as medical or legal documentation. As of this week, the country has abolished its traditional system and will now solely adhere to the international system in an effort to reduce the amount of disputes and confusion that tended to arise due to the discrepancy between the two systems.
For the record, Son was born on July 8, 1992, and is 30 years old, according to the international ageing system. Of course, despite the constitutional changes being made in Korea, Spurs will not have to alter any of the forward's registration information as the club are simply required to supply the Premier League with a verified date of birth, not an age.