“I was just satisfied seeing him at an arm’s distance”— FC Seoul’s Lee Sang-min on his close encounter with BTS’ Taehyung at military training camp

South Korean professional footballer and defender of FC Seoul shared his experience of meeting BTS' Kim Taehyung aka V at the military camp. FC Seoul uploaded the latest interview video of Lee Sang-min and his fellow teammate Yoon Jong-gyu on their official YouTube channel on August 2.

During the interview, Lee Sang-min brought up his enrollment in the military. He mentioned how Taehyung joined the same training camp as him and expressed his desire to meet the BTS celebrity. Lee Sang-min added that he heard whispers from other recruits that BTS's V and RM had enlisted with them.

As all the recruits queued up on the field to begin their enlistment, he tried to look for V but failed to recognize him among the recruits as everyone had a shaved head that looked the same from the back. The South Korean footballer narrated his hilariously failed attempt to get V's autograph later as his commander declined his request.

However, Lee Sang-min expressed his happiness and contentment at being able to see Taehyung from an "arm's distance." He said,

"I couldn’t speak to him. But I was just satisfied seeing him at an arm’s distance. I asked squad leaders if I could get his sign…[...] I asked the platoon commander and regiment commander to get his autograph. I don't know about idols well, but there's no one who doesn't know BTS."

He continued:

"I wanted to get his autograph because I didn't know when I would see him again, but they said they couldn't give me the autograph."

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Lee Sang-min recalls Taehyung's CELINE high-tops sneakers being the talk of the town at the military base

Lee Sang-min narrated the lengths he went to in order to get a glimpse of BTS' Taehyung at the military training camp. He mentioned that they all were allowed to use their phones for an hour on weekends when he looked up the idol online and saw him wearing the military poncho and CELINE shoes in the rain.

Subsequently, he informed his seven fellow colleagues that he intended to search the camp for the idol. Since only Taehyung had the CELINE high-top sneakers at the camp, Lee Sang-min shared how he noticed everyone's shoes to see who was wearing them.

Lee Sang-min was unable to find Taehyung even after searching for him for two to three days. However, the next day he saw the BTS idol at the military canteen, sitting close. Lee Sang-min said that Taehyung was wearing the same CELINE sneakers since all recruits were yet to get their military boots. He said,

"Because V is a Celine ambassador. It was easy to recognize the shoes because they were high-tops. From that day on, they received military boots and all wore the same shoes. It wasn't easy to see him after that. By the way, they made V the squad leader. Since the squad leader wore a name tag, I was able to see him two or three more times after that."

Lee Sang-min added that he couldn't get to see BTS's Namjoon aka RM at the military training camp, despite them all being there together.

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For the unversed, Lee Sang-min and Yoon Jong-gyu are both 26-year-old South Korean footballers. They play in the position of a defender for the FC Seoul Team.