Heung-min Son – Shining in Korea.
He is 30 years old and he celebrated his birthday last week on July 8th. He is a professional footballer who plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League. He is the captain of his country’s national football team, and his name is Heung-min Son. And he is also probably the most famous South Korean in the world.
The English football season usually winds down towards the end of May, and this is the time when the players go on holiday for a few weeks. Sonny, as the Tottenham fans call him, has always travelled home to South Korea at this time of year, but these days his journey is that of the returning and conquering hero. His exploits both for Tottenham Hotspur and for his country have made him an iconic legend in South Korea and he has a huge fan following there. He is clean cut and handsome, and without ever seeking the position, he has emerged as a great ambassador for his country.
What is the story behind this meteoric rise? In 2008, at the age of 16 and after a successful trial with Hamburger SV in Germany, Sonny left his home in Chuncheon to join this German football club. He made his debut in the German Bundesliga in 2010, and in 2013 moved to Bayer Leverkusen for a club record €10 million. His continuing success led to his signing for Tottenham Hotspur for £22 million in 2015, becoming the most expensive Asian player in history.
While at Tottenham, Sonny became the top Asian goalscorer in both Premier League and Champions League history. In 2019, he became the second Asian in history to reach and start a UEFA Champions League final. And this past season he won the Premier League Golden Boot award for the most goals scored in the season, becoming the first Asian player to do so. This is an even more remarkable achievement because his tally of 23 goals does not include any penalty kicks whereas everyone else who came close to his score had penalties in their totals. I am not saying that penalties should not be counted, but it’s just that to win such a prize without any is a truly stellar achievement.
Sonny is not the only famous and high achieving player in Europe. There are many others, some of whom are almost household names, such as the high scoring Portuguese, Cristiano Ronaldo and the all-round Argentinian footballing genius, Lionel Messi. But Sonny has one unique selling point. Whereas Portugal and Argentina have produced many football stars, he is one of the very few
