Player Watch Player Watch: Son Heung-min

[ralvy]

Sorry mate, but when Park was playing with United, many Asians really like him regardless of whether they were United fans or not, when at that time Ronaldo was the talk of the club.

Now Son is not just scoring for us, a rising club to be noticed nevertheless, setting the world's most popular league ablaze with some scintillating performances and worldie goals, not to forget his humble attitude and dashing K-pop outlook, you can never underestimate how we Asians, Spurs fans or not, have like, or even love him at this moment. Son's jersey will be preferred over Kane for absolutely sure.

Humble attitude? I don't know where people get this from, Son can be a bit of a selfish player sometimes, and is not unusual for him to ruin important offensive plays by wanting to play hero instead of playing a simple pass to a better positioned team mate.

 

[Shadydan]

Humble attitude? I don't know where people get this from, Son can be a bit of a selfish player sometimes, and is not unusual for him to ruin important offensive plays by wanting to play hero instead of playing a simple pass to a better positioned team mate.

That's nothing to do with his attitude, that's how he plays...same with Kane.

It's his demeanour on the pitch and his maturity in front of the camera's, he doesn't come across as arrogant and you don't see him remonstrating with team mates or refs.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Great piece in today’s Times:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/152bb31a-fd4c-11e7-a64e-221285d37bf1

 

[tiger666]

Great piece in today’s Times:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/152bb31a-fd4c-11e7-a64e-221285d37bf1

Can't read it, need to register.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Can't read it, need to register.

Ah, thought you could read one article a day now?

 

[Atomic Flea]

Humble attitude? I don't know where people get this from, Son can be a bit of a selfish player sometimes, and is not unusual for him to ruin important offensive plays by wanting to play hero instead of playing a simple pass to a better positioned team mate.

Every attacking player can be guilty of being selfish. Look at Alli or Kane for example. Sometimes to score goals you need to be selfish. He probably meant humble attitude off the pitch, which he does seem to have.

 

[JB_Spurs]

Ah, thought you could read one article a day now?

Think you can, but you have to have an account registered

 

[thebenjamin]

But worrying that army service is hanging over him at 28. Must come into consideration when thinking about a new contract. Possible resale value of zero

 

[Spurrific]

Humble attitude? I don't know where people get this from, Son can be a bit of a selfish player sometimes, and is not unusual for him to ruin important offensive plays by wanting to play hero instead of playing a simple pass to a better positioned team mate.

Lay off the ket.

 

[Shadydan]

Ah, thought you could read one article a day now?

Copy and paste the text here mate

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Copy and paste the text here mate

Can’t seem to do it on my phone.

 

[tiger666]

Can’t seem to do it on my phone.

Upgrade that Nokia 3310.

 

[Woodyy]

Son Heung-min, the reluctant icon on his way to becoming Asia’s answer to Lionel Messi
James Gheerbrant meets those who have witnessed the Tottenham Hotspur forward’s rise to the top

It wasn’t the finish that caught Soner Uysal’s attention. Standing on a touchline in Seoul, South Korea, in 2008, the Hamburg youth coach’s eye was instead drawn by the extra-sensory intuition of the player’s run. “I played in the Bundesliga and I’ve seldom seen a player give such an impression of having a picture of the pitch situation in his head,” he recalls.

“A midfielder received the ball and broke forward, and this boy had already set off, making a run in behind the defence with absolutely perfect timing. All the midfielder had to do was chip it over the defence and he was one-on-one with the ’keeper. The other players were not as far advanced as him between the ears.

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Watch Son’s unstoppable strike against West Ham
“The runs he made were not normal for a 16-year-old, in terms of his timing and feel. That was what made me say, I absolutely want to take him with me.” The player Uysal had spotted would go on to be the finest Asian footballer of his generation, and his name was Son Heung-min.

These days, Son (Son is his family name; Heung-min his given name) is on the cusp of establishing himself as a genuinely elite player. Since December 1, he has been involved in ten Premier League goals — a total bettered by no other player. With eight goals this season, he has outscored team-mates Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen.

SON SHINING

• 26 Premier League goals by Son since he joined Tottenham, the most by a Korean in the competition’s history
• 4 assists already this season from the Tottenham forward, only two short of his entire haul last season

But if the image of Son celebrating a goal is familiar, it feels like the player himself is a little less so. Behind his rise is a fascinating story that testifies to his perseverance and personality.

Also standing on that Korean touchline that day was Thies Bliemeister, now Son’s agent and friend. “I found him a totally positive, open young man,” Bliemeister says. “Very unguarded, very friendly and funny.” Bliemeister accompanied Son to Germany, along with two other young Korean players, Kim Min-hyuk and Kim Jong-pil (who are now playing in the Japanese first and second tiers respectively).

Son already had a good technical grounding, largely because of the influence of his father, Son Woong-jung, a former professional footballer.

“He learnt and trained football under his father until 15 years old,” explains Korean football journalist Seo Hyung-wook. “His father focused on improving his son’s basic skills. That’s totally different from how players are usually trained in Korea. School football has its own tournament system, so most young players learn how to win, not how to play good football.”

Son, left, went to Germany as a teenager with Kim Min-hyuk and Kim Jong-pil
Naturally, Son’s early months in Germany — 5,000 miles from home, away from his family — were difficult. Initially he lived in a boarding-house in the club’s academy. But those who knew Son during that period speak of his relentless, unbreakable positivity.

“It was a difficult period for him, certainly, but he was always positive,” remembers Uysal. “He never stopped laughing, he always radiated a lot of joy.

“One morning we turned up for training in the snow, and the pitch was completely unplayable. So I said, ‘OK, let’s go for a run.’ Son was right at the back, he tried and tried but he couldn’t keep up with the rest, but when I looked back to communicate with him, he was still laughing. Dead last and he was still laughing.”

If Son’s demeanour was light, his work ethic was serious. “Every time I visited, he was on the training ground,” Bliemeister remembers. Son also mastered German with remarkable speed, speaking it within three months. “He even took on a certain ironic sense of humour,” Bliemeister says.”

Off the pitch, fashion is one of Son’s constant interests. “He doesn’t have what I would call a typical footballer’s style,” Bliemeister says. “Most footballers all dress the same: Gucci, Prada and all that. He has his own very individual style. That’s something that he had even when he first stepped off the train in Frankfurt and he didn’t have any money.”

Son is a popular member of the Spurs squad, and renowned for his positive attitudePAUL CHILDS/ACTION IMAGES VIA REUTERS
Bliemeister tells a story of the time he took the three Koreans grocery-shopping for the first time after they moved into an apartment in Hamburg. “I said to them, ‘Is there anything in particular you want to eat?’ But the very first thing they made a beeline for, all three of them, was a hair-colouring product. They came back with no food in their trolleys, just this packet of hair dye.”

But beneath the coiffed exterior, Son also has a tough streak. He once told FourFourTwo that he made a point of learning German swearwords before he left Korea, because “you can’t have people calling you names while you just look at them, smiling politely.”

“His greatest strength was his mental stamina,” Uysal remembers. “Even at an age where he didn’t yet have physical stamina, he had mental endurance: if something didn’t come off the first time, he’d do it again.”

Son’s father, right, was also a professional footballer
Son needed that quality when, after his first season at Hamburg, the club decided not to offer him a professional contract and sent him back to Korea.

“The first year he spent with us, things didn’t click immediately,” Uysal admits. “He was an average player. The under-17 coach hadn’t often played him.”

During this period, Son had trials at Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth before representing South Korea at the 2009 Under-17 World Cup, where he scored three goals. Then, six months later, Hamburg’s under-19 team, coached by Uysal, needed a forward.

“He came in and scored in practically every game,” he recalls.

Son soon found himself promoted to Hamburg’s senior team, and after three seasons, moved on to Bayer Leverkusen. “He was really focused in what he was doing,” remembers Bristol City midfielder Jens Hegeler, who played with him there. “His finishing was outstanding, and it was obvious that Leverkusen wouldn’t be the last club he’d go to.”

Son moved to Tottenham Hotspur in August 2015, but struggled to establish himself in his first season, starting only 13 games, scoring just four goals, and taking criticism in the media.

Son, pictured after Korea’s elimination at the 2014 World Cup, has taken disappointments at international level to heartPHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES
“I met him in the mixed zone after one match and said, ‘Son, are you okay these days?’” remembers Sungmo Lee, a journalist at Goal.com Korea. “He smiled at me and said with a strong voice, ‘I’m fine, don’t you worry about me.’”

Son’s resolve has also been tested by some tough experiences with his national team. After South Korea’s defeat in the quarter-finals of the 2016 Olympic tournament, he “cried all day” and “didn’t even eat”, according to coach Shin Tae-yong. Failure to win a medal denied the entire squad an exemption from the mandatory 21-month military service all South Korean men must start before they turn 28. The spectre of conscription still stalks Son’s stellar performances — unless he can win a gold medal at this year’s Asian Games, World Cup or win next year’s Asian Cup, he will have to enlist.

At Tottenham, Son is a universally popular figure. He has a different handshake for each team-mate, and has been known to order in platters of food for everyone from his favourite Korean restaurant. He lives in a modest apartment with his parents.

The paradox of Son is that this exceptional humility belies an enormous commercial potential. “Currently he is the biggest sports personality in Korea,” says Seo Hyung-wook. “Lots of people watch the Spurs game every weekend.”

Seo lived in Liverpool between 2003 and 2004 and believes Son is bigger in Korea now than Wayne Rooney was in England then. “He is the best player in the Korean national team, young and handsome. He socialises with famous actors and singers and most people take an interest in his life.”

The modest Son has huge commercial potential back home in KoreaRICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES
A good performance at this summer’s World Cup would cement Son’s status as one of Asia’s biggest, most marketable sports stars, but despite his stylishness, Son is a reluctant icon.

The dual aspects of his persona were encapsulated in a viral TV commercial for Leverkusen’s Korean sponsor LG in which Son appears in full kit in a lift doing kick-ups, but characteristically allows himself to be upstaged by the unexpected ball-juggling skills of a random office worker.

“I’m sure Son himself would not want to be compared with David Beckham or Lionel Messi,” says Sungmo Lee. “He is such a humble guy, and he would say, ‘That’s too much!’”

 

[TwanYid]

Guys and gals: is there anything that can be done as far as him NOT having to serve in the military? I mean if he really is considered the "Korean Messi," then is there no way he can get some kind of exemption/deferral/whatever-- i.e., work something out- so that he can remain playing soccer, as opposed to wasting two of his absolute prime years for what basically amounts to nothing? Wouldn't it be better for South Korea to have him on the field as opposed to in the barracks? Or is it set in stone?

And if it is, then what- realistically- can/should we do?

Tbh I keep forgetting about his military situation but Chist almighty, his departure-- especially for WAY less than he's worth-- would be a BIG blow to us in many, many ways.

 

[nuttynoah]

Did you not read the above article?

 

[parj]

I'm sure the club was aware of this when we signed him. There must be a plan. I have a sister he can marry to get British citizenship

 

[Lemon]

If he can continue his form, I believe the Korean authorities will give him a deferral, on grounds of his importance to the country and happiness he brings.

Optimistic.

 

[Streetspur77]

I can't see the authorities calling their national hero up to waste a few years in the military and in turn ruin his career, it's in he national interest for him to continue his rise.

I'm pretty sure if they called him into military service at 28 then he'd miss, or at least not be in a condition to compete in, the 2022 World Cup which would be terrible for South Korea

 

[yankspurs]

Guys and gals: is there anything that can be done as far as him NOT having to serve in the military? I mean if he really is considered the "Korean Messi," then is there no way he can get some kind of exemption/deferral/whatever-- i.e., work something out- so that he can remain playing soccer, as opposed to wasting two of his absolute prime years for what basically amounts to nothing? Wouldn't it be better for South Korea to have him on the field as opposed to in the barracks? Or is it set in stone?

And if it is, then what- realistically- can/should we do?

Tbh I keep forgetting about his military situation but Chist almighty, his departure-- especially for WAY less than he's worth-- would be a BIG blow to us in many, many ways.

Has to win Asia Games, the World Cup or the Asia Cup

 

[punkisback]

Has to win Asia Games, the World Cup or the Asia Cup

Hopefully South Korea are strong enough to win one of these!