Kulu should have slipped him that pass instead of shooting, and he'd have banged another in
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Also shows how effective Eriksen was, given the number of games.
Its amazing considering he was a winger until this season. Only Cliff Jones is in our top 10 as a winger...
everyone else down is a striker.
Prem history but not club...hello Jimmy, Cliff, Alan G etc
Feel free to tell me where I said it wasn't Prem history
"Since the start of 2022, a Tottenham player has only ever been involved in three or more goals on six occasions. All six of those belong to Son Heung-min."
I love Sonny, he is integrity personified.
A true leader, a superb footballer and a decent human being.
We are lucky to have him and I hope he continues to perform to his high standards for a few years yet.
A Legend worthy of the name.
A true leader, a superb footballer and a decent human being.
We are lucky to have him and I hope he continues to perform to his high standards for a few years yet.
A Legend worthy of the name.
'I actually started supporting Spurs in 2010' - watching Son Heung-min in South Korea
The Athletic spent Sunday with some of the South Korea Spurs supporters’ club. Their backstories are not as predictable as you might imagine
theathletic.com
The huge sense of disappointment at the sight of a standard scoreboard graphic in the top left corner of the giant screen soon gives way.
Within seconds of Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League match at Aston Villastarting, a Son Heung-min icon appears to denote that South Korea’s finest is playing for the away team.
If Son scores or assists, that will be permanently logged on the screen too.
Essentially, it is Aston Villa versus Tottenham Hotspur’s Son for the next 90 minutes… which actually ends up being not far from the truth.
The venue is a bar called Opus, tucked away on the second floor of a narrow one-way street in Sinchon, one of the most vibrant areas in Seoul, partly because of its proximity to Yonsei University.
Club pennants and football memorabilia of every description hang from the walls, including two Park Chu-young shirts on one side of the giant screen (a penny for the thoughts of Son about his compatriot’s Woolwich No 9 jersey having pride of place). The cockerel on show on the opposite side at least brings some north London balance and is more in keeping with the mood on this Sunday evening.
A 1pm kick-off in England is 10pm in South Korea, meaning the game will finish just before midnight. Time is irrelevant, though, when Son is playing.
Opus is busy. The majority of people in here are Spurs fans — some might say Sonny fans (more about that later) — but other football shirts are being worn too. A Manchester City supporter is in the house and in for the long haul if he is planning to stay up for the Liverpool match, which will finish not long before 3am.
The Athletic is spending the evening with three members of the South Korea Spurs official supporters group (a club that is 29,000 strong), and their backstories are not as predictable as you might imagine.
Ahn Beom-soo, top left, Heo Jin-woong, bottom left, and Lee Kyu-seok, right, at Opus bar in Seoul (Stuart James/The Athletic)
Lee Kyu-seok, 28: “I started supporting Spurs in 2010. I was a big fan of Gareth Bale and Emmanuel Adebayor around that time. I like speed and Tottenham had very fast players; Bale, Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon excited me. And after that, Harry Kane. Oh my gosh, Harry Kane!
“Sonny came to Tottenham in 2015 and that was big for me. It was hard to watch Tottenham in Korea before then because they didn’t have a Korean player. Ki Sung-yueng was playing in Swansea, so we could only watch a Swansea City or Manchester United match. But after Sonny came, every Tottenham match is on TV, so I’m very happy about that.”
Heo Jin-woong, 30: “I fell in love with football at the 2002 World Cup (which was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan) — I think every Korean did the same. Then Park Ji-sung went to Manchester United, so we watched English football and I had to decide which team I would support. Man United were so common with Korean people, and the same with Chelsea and Liverpool, so I didn’t like that.
“I decided I liked the white Spurs kit. At that time, Lee Young-pyo was at Tottenham, so I followed games but didn’t really support them. But when Gareth Bale played against Inter Milan, I saw that match and I thought. ‘I love Tottenham’.”
Ahn Beom-soo, 25: “The first time I liked Tottenham was when I was at middle school at 13 or 14. In Korea, people choose famous clubs like Manchester United or Manchester City. But I fell in love with Christian Eriksen and started to support Tottenham.”
We’re underway and, with Villa in fourth place and Spurs just behind them, there’s no playing down the significance of the match.
Kyu-seok Lee: “This could decide whether Tottenham go into the Champions League next season or not — this game is that important.”
Playing through the middle, Son struggles to get into the game initially.
Stuart James: “Do you think Son is a better player this season without Kane?”
Lee: “Not better, but different. Son can play more offensive now.”
Ahn: “Son plays more similarly now to how he plays in the national team.”
James: “I’m glad you brought up the national team. How do people feel in South Korea about that altercation at the Asian Cup involving Son and Lee Kang-in?”
GO DEEPER
Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in and the row that dislocated a finger and rocked South Korea's Asian Cup
Lee: “I am very disappointed with the performance (losing to Jordan in the semi-finals). But that incident is common in a football team. For example, at Tottenham, Hugo Lloris had an issue — he shouted at Sonny (during a game against Everton in 2020), and sometimes Eriksen shouted at Dele Alli.”
James: “But who did the public back here — Son, I presume?”
Ahn: “Most Korean people support Son because he’s the captain.”
Lee: “Korean culture is that we have respect for older people.”
Lee Kang-in and Son’s heated row left the latter with a broken finger (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
With little happening on the pitch, a conversation starts about the best-supported team in South Korea. The consensus is that Manchester United are still way out in front —a legacy of Park Ji-sung’s time at Old Trafford and the club’s success during that era. Spurs are almost certainly in second spot.
Lee: “This is just my opinion, but some Korea fans don’t like Spurs, they just like Son. Some say Son should go to a bigger club, ‘Leave Tottenham, he doesn’t get trophies’.”
James: “That’s becoming a trend in other countries, where people end up supporting a player, like Kylian Mbappe, rather than a team.”
GO DEEPER
Kylian Mbappe: The incredible, inevitable rise of a superstar
Ahn: “Korea is famous for K-pop. There are many idols and the fan clubs are so big for those idols — and those fan clubs come to football.”
Lee: “And that means Korean guys like players and not teams.”
The game is an intriguing tactical battle. Ollie Watkins has burst through a couple of times for Villa, whereas Son has been quiet.
Lee: “But Sonny can score any time.”
James: “Have any of you had the opportunity to watch Spurs play live?”
Ahn: “I went to see them play Southampton in the FA Cup. Tottenham won 3-2 (in 2020). Sonny scored a penalty — that’s quite rare!”
Lee: “I would love to go, that’s my dream. I heard about our stadium and how the feeling there is overwhelming.”
Heo: “Unfortunately, I haven’t been to London yet. However, I am planning to visit the UK next season. I wish Tottenham could finish in the top four this season, and then I can go and watch a Champions League home match.”
Spurs have got into a couple of promising positions on the left but Brennan Johnson’s final ball has let him down.
James: “I’m not sure Johnson has the quality to be an elite player: to be a Tottenham player.”
Heo: “He’s fast but no, his crossing, passing and finishing is… he’s young, though, and so he can develop.”
Dropping deeper, Son springs to life with a first-time pass around the corner as Spurs look to break.
Lee: “That was like Kane, very clever!”
James: “I’m interested to know how you feel about the way Son’s father trained him. I don’t know if you’ve seen the Sonsational documentary — that training regimen when he was younger was really tough.”
Ahn: “Other coaches should learn from him!”
James: “But Son was made to do keepy-uppies for four hours. That’s brutal!”
Ahn: “The result is Son!”
GO DEEPER
Inside Son Heung-min's £11 million academy, where shooting is banned for under-15s
Heo: “Typically in the youth system in Korea, it seems like they always need to get a result to progress further. So even from the youth, your focus is more on the result of the game or winning trophies. In contrast, at Son Heung-min’s father’s academy, they’re not really that focused on winning things: it’s more about development.”
Ahn: “The difference is Son agreed and consented to his (father’s) methods because he wanted to become a footballer. I don’t know if it’s mentioned in the documentary but the father asked whether Sonny truly wanted to become a football player and warned him that it would be a hard journey, and that if Sonny wants to do it, he would have to listen to his father’s instructions to the T. But in the actual academy (run by Son’s father), it’s less harsh and the father focuses on other things away from football, like general development.”
It’s half-time and goalless. Spurs have attempted one shot — their lowest in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game since Ange Postecoglou was appointed.
After a loud collective groan when Micky van de Ven goes down injured, the mood quickly changes. Pape Matar Sarr’s superb cross is turned in by James Maddison and Spurs are in front. There are huge cheers all around.
Three minutes later, it’s 2-0 when Johnson converts Son’s pass, confirming what I said earlier about the Welshman being an elite player who belongs at Tottenham.
Lee, Ahn and Heo clink their glasses (after laughing at me).
Lee: “Nice one, Sonny!”
The away fans may be nearly 9,000 kilometres away on the other side of the world, but we can hear them loud and clear in Seoul and Lee is joining in.
“Oh, when the Spurs
“Go marching in
“Oh, when the Spurs go marching in.
“I wanna be in that number
“Oh, when the Spurs go marching in.”
The game has come to life now. John McGinn’s wild challenge on Destiny Udogie is met with gasps of disapproval that get louder every time another replay is shown.
As a skirmish breaks out, and McGinn is shown a red card, Son tries to restore calm.
James: “Son the peacemaker?”
Lee: “Nowadays!”
Ahn: “When he was young…”
Lee: “… he was like Dele Alli, more of a fighting style.”
It feels like the only thing we’re missing is a Son goal. An opportunity to shoot is passed up — literally —— when Son feeds Dejan Kulusevski.
James: “Do you think Son should be more single-minded on the pitch?
Heo: “If he has an opportunity to shoot, he should take it because he’s a great finisher.”
Ahn: “I know Son is good at one-touch passing, very good at it. But in front of goal, he should be selfish.”
Heo: “After he became captain he’s more…”
Ahn: “… selfless.”
Heo: “In the national team, he doesn’t shoot.”
Ahn: “He tries to pass, tries to give opportunities to other players.”
Another Spurs attack and Kulusevski could — and should — release Son in space on the left. Instead, he shoots.
Son beats the floor in annoyance and looks exasperated, and everyone in Opus bar feels his pain.
It feels like it’s not going to be his day.
Oh, hang on a minute — we’re in business here. Kulusevski (all is forgiven) darts in from the right, picks out Son and the striker emphatically sweeps home a first-time shot.
The bar erupts and even the translator, whose services have rarely been called upon this evening, is up on his feet.
“That’s what we’re here for!” Park In-wook shouts as everyone celebrates.
Ahn: “A great finish!”
As “Nice one, Sonny” reverberates around the away end at Villa Park, Ahn points out that it would be a good time for me to take a photo of the television screen, where Son now has one goal and one assist next to his name, above the scoreline, on the TV graphic.
(Stuart James/The Athletic)
Soon, it will be two assists when the Spurs captain sets up Timo Werner for the fourth.
Park In-wook, the increasingly animated translator, wonders whether we’re watching prime Barcelona.
(Stuart James/The Athletic)
James: “Happy?”
Ahn: “Very happy!”
As the final whistle blows, everyone in the bar applauds.
Son will pick up the man-of-the-match award later. For now, he is walking around the Villa Park pitch picking up litter.
It’s no wonder they are so proud of him here.
Within seconds of Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League match at Aston Villastarting, a Son Heung-min icon appears to denote that South Korea’s finest is playing for the away team.
If Son scores or assists, that will be permanently logged on the screen too.
Essentially, it is Aston Villa versus Tottenham Hotspur’s Son for the next 90 minutes… which actually ends up being not far from the truth.
The venue is a bar called Opus, tucked away on the second floor of a narrow one-way street in Sinchon, one of the most vibrant areas in Seoul, partly because of its proximity to Yonsei University.
Club pennants and football memorabilia of every description hang from the walls, including two Park Chu-young shirts on one side of the giant screen (a penny for the thoughts of Son about his compatriot’s Woolwich No 9 jersey having pride of place). The cockerel on show on the opposite side at least brings some north London balance and is more in keeping with the mood on this Sunday evening.
A 1pm kick-off in England is 10pm in South Korea, meaning the game will finish just before midnight. Time is irrelevant, though, when Son is playing.
Opus is busy. The majority of people in here are Spurs fans — some might say Sonny fans (more about that later) — but other football shirts are being worn too. A Manchester City supporter is in the house and in for the long haul if he is planning to stay up for the Liverpool match, which will finish not long before 3am.
The Athletic is spending the evening with three members of the South Korea Spurs official supporters group (a club that is 29,000 strong), and their backstories are not as predictable as you might imagine.
Ahn Beom-soo, top left, Heo Jin-woong, bottom left, and Lee Kyu-seok, right, at Opus bar in Seoul (Stuart James/The Athletic)
Lee Kyu-seok, 28: “I started supporting Spurs in 2010. I was a big fan of Gareth Bale and Emmanuel Adebayor around that time. I like speed and Tottenham had very fast players; Bale, Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon excited me. And after that, Harry Kane. Oh my gosh, Harry Kane!
“Sonny came to Tottenham in 2015 and that was big for me. It was hard to watch Tottenham in Korea before then because they didn’t have a Korean player. Ki Sung-yueng was playing in Swansea, so we could only watch a Swansea City or Manchester United match. But after Sonny came, every Tottenham match is on TV, so I’m very happy about that.”
Heo Jin-woong, 30: “I fell in love with football at the 2002 World Cup (which was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan) — I think every Korean did the same. Then Park Ji-sung went to Manchester United, so we watched English football and I had to decide which team I would support. Man United were so common with Korean people, and the same with Chelsea and Liverpool, so I didn’t like that.
“I decided I liked the white Spurs kit. At that time, Lee Young-pyo was at Tottenham, so I followed games but didn’t really support them. But when Gareth Bale played against Inter Milan, I saw that match and I thought. ‘I love Tottenham’.”
Ahn Beom-soo, 25: “The first time I liked Tottenham was when I was at middle school at 13 or 14. In Korea, people choose famous clubs like Manchester United or Manchester City. But I fell in love with Christian Eriksen and started to support Tottenham.”
We’re underway and, with Villa in fourth place and Spurs just behind them, there’s no playing down the significance of the match.
Kyu-seok Lee: “This could decide whether Tottenham go into the Champions League next season or not — this game is that important.”
Playing through the middle, Son struggles to get into the game initially.
Stuart James: “Do you think Son is a better player this season without Kane?”
Lee: “Not better, but different. Son can play more offensive now.”
Ahn: “Son plays more similarly now to how he plays in the national team.”
James: “I’m glad you brought up the national team. How do people feel in South Korea about that altercation at the Asian Cup involving Son and Lee Kang-in?”
GO DEEPER
Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in and the row that dislocated a finger and rocked South Korea's Asian Cup
Lee: “I am very disappointed with the performance (losing to Jordan in the semi-finals). But that incident is common in a football team. For example, at Tottenham, Hugo Lloris had an issue — he shouted at Sonny (during a game against Everton in 2020), and sometimes Eriksen shouted at Dele Alli.”
James: “But who did the public back here — Son, I presume?”
Ahn: “Most Korean people support Son because he’s the captain.”
Lee: “Korean culture is that we have respect for older people.”
Lee Kang-in and Son’s heated row left the latter with a broken finger (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
With little happening on the pitch, a conversation starts about the best-supported team in South Korea. The consensus is that Manchester United are still way out in front —a legacy of Park Ji-sung’s time at Old Trafford and the club’s success during that era. Spurs are almost certainly in second spot.
Lee: “This is just my opinion, but some Korea fans don’t like Spurs, they just like Son. Some say Son should go to a bigger club, ‘Leave Tottenham, he doesn’t get trophies’.”
James: “That’s becoming a trend in other countries, where people end up supporting a player, like Kylian Mbappe, rather than a team.”
GO DEEPER
Kylian Mbappe: The incredible, inevitable rise of a superstar
Ahn: “Korea is famous for K-pop. There are many idols and the fan clubs are so big for those idols — and those fan clubs come to football.”
Lee: “And that means Korean guys like players and not teams.”
The game is an intriguing tactical battle. Ollie Watkins has burst through a couple of times for Villa, whereas Son has been quiet.
Lee: “But Sonny can score any time.”
James: “Have any of you had the opportunity to watch Spurs play live?”
Ahn: “I went to see them play Southampton in the FA Cup. Tottenham won 3-2 (in 2020). Sonny scored a penalty — that’s quite rare!”
Lee: “I would love to go, that’s my dream. I heard about our stadium and how the feeling there is overwhelming.”
Heo: “Unfortunately, I haven’t been to London yet. However, I am planning to visit the UK next season. I wish Tottenham could finish in the top four this season, and then I can go and watch a Champions League home match.”
Spurs have got into a couple of promising positions on the left but Brennan Johnson’s final ball has let him down.
James: “I’m not sure Johnson has the quality to be an elite player: to be a Tottenham player.”
Heo: “He’s fast but no, his crossing, passing and finishing is… he’s young, though, and so he can develop.”
Dropping deeper, Son springs to life with a first-time pass around the corner as Spurs look to break.
Lee: “That was like Kane, very clever!”
James: “I’m interested to know how you feel about the way Son’s father trained him. I don’t know if you’ve seen the Sonsational documentary — that training regimen when he was younger was really tough.”
Ahn: “Other coaches should learn from him!”
James: “But Son was made to do keepy-uppies for four hours. That’s brutal!”
Ahn: “The result is Son!”
GO DEEPER
Inside Son Heung-min's £11 million academy, where shooting is banned for under-15s
Heo: “Typically in the youth system in Korea, it seems like they always need to get a result to progress further. So even from the youth, your focus is more on the result of the game or winning trophies. In contrast, at Son Heung-min’s father’s academy, they’re not really that focused on winning things: it’s more about development.”
Ahn: “The difference is Son agreed and consented to his (father’s) methods because he wanted to become a footballer. I don’t know if it’s mentioned in the documentary but the father asked whether Sonny truly wanted to become a football player and warned him that it would be a hard journey, and that if Sonny wants to do it, he would have to listen to his father’s instructions to the T. But in the actual academy (run by Son’s father), it’s less harsh and the father focuses on other things away from football, like general development.”
It’s half-time and goalless. Spurs have attempted one shot — their lowest in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game since Ange Postecoglou was appointed.
After a loud collective groan when Micky van de Ven goes down injured, the mood quickly changes. Pape Matar Sarr’s superb cross is turned in by James Maddison and Spurs are in front. There are huge cheers all around.
Three minutes later, it’s 2-0 when Johnson converts Son’s pass, confirming what I said earlier about the Welshman being an elite player who belongs at Tottenham.
Lee, Ahn and Heo clink their glasses (after laughing at me).
Lee: “Nice one, Sonny!”
The away fans may be nearly 9,000 kilometres away on the other side of the world, but we can hear them loud and clear in Seoul and Lee is joining in.
“Oh, when the Spurs
“Go marching in
“Oh, when the Spurs go marching in.
“I wanna be in that number
“Oh, when the Spurs go marching in.”
The game has come to life now. John McGinn’s wild challenge on Destiny Udogie is met with gasps of disapproval that get louder every time another replay is shown.
As a skirmish breaks out, and McGinn is shown a red card, Son tries to restore calm.
James: “Son the peacemaker?”
Lee: “Nowadays!”
Ahn: “When he was young…”
Lee: “… he was like Dele Alli, more of a fighting style.”
It feels like the only thing we’re missing is a Son goal. An opportunity to shoot is passed up — literally —— when Son feeds Dejan Kulusevski.
James: “Do you think Son should be more single-minded on the pitch?
Heo: “If he has an opportunity to shoot, he should take it because he’s a great finisher.”
Ahn: “I know Son is good at one-touch passing, very good at it. But in front of goal, he should be selfish.”
Heo: “After he became captain he’s more…”
Ahn: “… selfless.”
Heo: “In the national team, he doesn’t shoot.”
Ahn: “He tries to pass, tries to give opportunities to other players.”
Another Spurs attack and Kulusevski could — and should — release Son in space on the left. Instead, he shoots.
Son beats the floor in annoyance and looks exasperated, and everyone in Opus bar feels his pain.
It feels like it’s not going to be his day.
Oh, hang on a minute — we’re in business here. Kulusevski (all is forgiven) darts in from the right, picks out Son and the striker emphatically sweeps home a first-time shot.
The bar erupts and even the translator, whose services have rarely been called upon this evening, is up on his feet.
“That’s what we’re here for!” Park In-wook shouts as everyone celebrates.
Ahn: “A great finish!”
As “Nice one, Sonny” reverberates around the away end at Villa Park, Ahn points out that it would be a good time for me to take a photo of the television screen, where Son now has one goal and one assist next to his name, above the scoreline, on the TV graphic.
(Stuart James/The Athletic)
Soon, it will be two assists when the Spurs captain sets up Timo Werner for the fourth.
Park In-wook, the increasingly animated translator, wonders whether we’re watching prime Barcelona.
(Stuart James/The Athletic)
James: “Happy?”
Ahn: “Very happy!”
As the final whistle blows, everyone in the bar applauds.
Son will pick up the man-of-the-match award later. For now, he is walking around the Villa Park pitch picking up litter.
It’s no wonder they are so proud of him here.
yeh specially back head injury can be very bad
shows a great leader in son looking out 4 vic
Currently watching Sonsational for the first time and there is a segment in which Son communicates his adulation for the Champions League and the fact he moved from Hamburg to Leverkusen for Champions League football.. and as our captain he will be really pushing and motivating the lads to get back into this tournament for sure.
Mentally already in Seoul for the qualifier against Thailand today.
son and johnson in the front line against a side like today who are physical and up for a scrap is a recipe for disaster. against a side playing a ridiculous high line then fair enough, but a side who will get compact and smash about, its just not going to work in a month of sundays.
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Terrible today. Should have scored in the first half and failed with his simple passing.
That's on Levy. Should have sold him at half time. Every game that goes by without selling him is wasting his resale value at this point.
Profit before glory.
That's on Levy. Should have sold him at half time. Every game that goes by without selling him is wasting his resale value at this point.
Profit before glory.