The prolific forward captains his country and has scooped individual honours but has never won a trophy at club level. In his late twenties, he faces a decision where to spend the remaining years of his footballing prime. He chooses Tottenham Hotspur.
It is both wishful thinking and fact for Tottenham. While Harry Kane’s future remains shrouded in uncertainty, the chance to win silverware prompting him to cast his eyes towards the exit, the other half of the Premier League’s most potent double act is staying at the club who finished seventh. Son Heung-min signed a four-year contract on Friday. See it out and he will be 33 by the time he is eligible to play for anyone else.
A loyalist underlined his status as one of the most likeable footballers around. “It’s like home, especially with the fans, the players, the staff,” he said. “There was no decision. It was easy.”
But is undeniable that Son would command a place in many better sides than the 2020-21 Tottenham. His 17 Premier League goals was bettered only by three players. Include assists and he was directly involved in 27 goals, behind only Kane and Bruno Fernandes in the division. In the last five seasons, he has scored 99 goals in all competitions, despite rarely operating as a striker.
Even in an era with a host of other prolific wingers, that renders him special. It means Son could complete a decade at Tottenham without any trophies beyond the host of individual awards a serial Asian Footballer of the Year collects. That a continent’s finest footballer will be found in the Europa Conference League – Tottenham have the dubious boast of being founder members – feels incongruous. It highlights Spurs’ decline in the two years since they were Champions League finalists. It makes Son’s enduring faithfulness all the more admirable.
It is unsurprising that Tottenham interpreted it as an endorsement of the new regime. The recently-appointed managing director, Fabio Paratici, cited “a new chapter for the club with Nuno Espirito Santo.” Spurs’ chaotic, prolonged managerial search might have convinced many another that Tottenham had lost their way; not Son. Deliberately or otherwise, he has delivered a vote of confidence in Nuno.
Despite chairman Daniel Levy’s defiance and the improbability that Manchester City would pay anything like £160 million ($220m) for Kane, there is the prospect of the top scorer leaving; if so, any replacement would automatically be a downgrade. It would have a knock-on effect for his sidekick; as hardly any strikers share Kane’s gifts for supplying defence-splitting passes, it would probably mean a successor would create a speedy winger fewer chances. Nor did that deter Son.
The South Korean may have cemented a status as Spurs’ favourite adopted son, and indeed, their adopted Son. Tottenham have a proud tradition of stylish, high-class imports, from Ossie Ardiles and Ricardo Villa via Jurgen Klinsmann and David Ginola to Rafael van der Vaart and Luka Modric and then Christian Eriksen.
Most have sizeable medal collections from their time elsewhere. Not Son, after his time with Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen. But, with 107, he is already Spurs’ top scorer among non-British and Irish players. Carry on at his current rate and, over four more years, he should displace Martin Chivers, who struck 174 times, to become the fourth highest scorer in their history and could rank seventh for appearances.
Longevity and loyalty, coupled with a constant supply of goals and an endearing personality, could mean a long body of work gives him a fine claim to the tag of Tottenham’s greatest foreigner. It would be a title of sorts, though not the trophy that has long eluded him and Spurs.
