Five times a year, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) schedules an "international break". It's a time when club soccer around the world stops and national competitions take place.
In Korean, it's translated as 'A-match break', but there's a catch.
This is because most of the players we recognize by name don't get to rest during this period. Instead, long flights and jet lag combine to make it an even more tiring week, leading to the overuse controversy.
In South Korea, two players who are always called to the front of the line are Klinsmann and Tottenham's "captain" Son Heung-min, 31. According to FIFPro's monitoring data, Son has flown 78,819 kilometers in the past year.
In hours, that's 104 hours and just over four days. In the same period, Son played 61 matches (50 club and 11 national team). That's 5150 minutes of playing time. The most of any South Korean player.
When he returned to South Korea for the October trials, rest was the topic of conversation. Son was substituted in the 31st minute of a league match on July 7, and the injury was later announced.
"He's as important to the (Korean) national team as he is to us," said head coach Enzi Postecoglu, adding, "I'm sure Jürgen will take care of him."
Head coach Jürgen Klinsmann said on Sept. 9 that "the health of the players is the priority," but "we will not intentionally rotate them."
Klinsmann also said that "the national team is an honor" and that "no player wants to take a break from playing for the national team." It's a response that may worry clubs and fans, but managers' greed is similar everywhere. In England, there's been a debate over whether Arsenal's 22-year-old ace, Xherdan Shaqiri, should be called up. Xhaka was injured during a UEFA Champions League match on Nov. 4 and missed a league match on Nov. 9, but was called up to the national team.
England manager Gareth Southgate justified the recall of the player from the injury list by arguing that "we've still got a week to go before Australia and 10 days before Italy" and that there would be plenty of time to monitor the situation after he joined the squad.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said that "Xhaka can't play now," and the situation was eventually resolved when the English Football Association (FA) announced that "Xhaka has decided to stay at the club and rehabilitate".
Prior to his nine-match absence, Xhaka had started 87 consecutive league games.
It's the longest streak in Arsenal's history. 온라인카지노
Since making his first-team debut at the age of 17 in 2018, he has only missed three games due to injury.
"The best players in the world play 70 games every three days and still win, so he should be able to do that," Arteta said last year when asked about his workload.
It's harsh, but it's the "new normal" in elite soccer today.
Players are playing more and more minutes than ever before, according to player association reports.
Real Madrid sensation Jude Bellingham, who turned 20 this year, has accumulated 17 times more minutes than David Beckham did when he was the same age. 
While medical technology and scientific management have come a long way, there's no telling what the repercussions of this overwork will be in the future.
The Players' Association suggests that professional players should be limited to 55 games per season, including national team and club matches, warning that "tight schedules can jeopardize the health and careers of elite players and reduce the quality of the game."