Belo Horizonte has gone down in Brazilian football history as a nightmarish stage.
There, the national football team suffered a humiliating defeat to Germany in their home World Cup in the summer of 2014. Two years later, the same Mineirão stadium was destroyed Son Heung-Min’sKorea’s most important player.
The Olympics are usually not very high on the top players’ list of importance, but in the football tournament of the Rio Games, Son seemed to have everything on the line. Korea lost its quarterfinal against Honduras, and the national team’s head coach later said that Son cried for hours.
Son was at the Games aiming for his first medal in Korea, but personally much more. Military conscription in Korea, which is still at war with its neighbor, also affects top athletes, unless they are granted a relatively rare exception.
In the case of Son, the matter became its own special saga, which was followed in the international football media and was even more exciting in Korea than the country’s actual success.
There were two options for the top soccer player. The first meant playing in the country’s premier league for an army team, a practical impossibility. The second was to win a significant prestigious tournament with the A national team. Then a possible two-year service would turn into just a few weeks of basic training.
At the Olympics, the journey was cut short, just like at the World Championships two years later, when Korea was left in the first group after Son scored two of his team’s three goals. At that time, he was 26 years old, and time was running out, because the age limit for starting service was 28.
Even Tottenham were so concerned that they were willing to take the extra risk of allowing Son to enter the Asian Under-23 Championship, which allowed three over-age players to be named.
Korea were the reigning champions, but Son was not included in the previous team because his then German club refused to allow their player to enter the tournament. Tottenham had to let go because it didn’t want its key player to go to a long military training, which would force him to put his sports career on hold.
Spin around the court keeping the ball in the air with your right foot the entire time. Second round in the same way, but with the left leg. There’s still a third to finish, but by bouncing alternately. Son still remembers his father’s eccentric exercises from his childhood.
If the ball fell to the ground, the whole thing started over. In reality, discipline has been deep in Son’s spinal cord throughout his adulthood, even without the help of the military.
The reason for that can be found at home, the most important but also the most demanding person in Son’s life. The player still faithfully listens to his father’s advice after already rising to the sharpest top in the world.
Tottenham has become very popular in Korea thanks to its Asian star player.
Spurs have even played practice matches in Korea to reach out to their remote supporters.
Son is rated among the most followed athletes in Asia.
Dad had the belief from an early age that he knows how to prepare a top soccer player. In particular, he believed that he knew what not to do, because he reflected his thoughts on his own experiences as a soccer player in his home country.
– He ordered four hours of bouncing for both of us. After three hours I saw three balls and the floor looked red. I was really tired, and he was really angry. This is the best story for me and we still talk about it, Son continued, recalling the home discipline he experienced at the age of 10 as if it were any everyday treat.
Father is now in his sixties, but still coaches in Korea at Son’s nickname academy. My son made it to the top, but the other teenagers at school haven’t loosened their grip. Nowadays, the boy’s reputation as one of the most dangerous players in the English Premier League gives more credibility to the words.
For his son, he was more than dedicated, for example by pouring more than a hundred sacks of salt on the school’s football field, so that playing would be possible all year round.
He still doesn’t budge from his principles even today.
Son had no interest in any team until he was a teenager, because in his father’s philosophy you had to learn the basics first. You can only really take a shot at the age of 15, until then the ball is just moved into the goal from close range. The same applies to the youth of the current Academy, at least three of whom have already made it to German clubs. In addition to father, Son’s brother also works at the academy.
While still joining the national team in Germany, Son did extra training under his father in his spare time. While still playing in the Premier League at Tottenham, he lived with his parents. At his father’s urging, he plans to get married only after his football career, because otherwise the family would come before the games.
Son has scored 96 goals for Tottenham in seven years.
Son came to Europe for the first time in 2008 after leaving school to pursue a place at the German academy in Hamburg. A place in the Bundesliga was found at the age of 18 and after three seasons the journey continued to Bayer Leverkusen. From there, the Korean was bought to Tottenham in 2016.
– Very few young players had his attitude. He was always ready to learn and develop. Asian players were always known for their technical skills, but not their power levels. He had both and also read the game well, the Brazilian legend who played in Hamburg Ze Roberto recalled to FourFourTwo (you’re moving to another service).
The first season in England with very poor language skills also brought the first – and this time the last – clear setback, when Son felt that he was stuck in a smaller role and went to the bottom after the Olympics the following summer. The player asked the club for a transfer back to Germany, but in the end he didn’t go anywhere.
Patience was rewarded as Son became more confident and effective, and the following season he rose from substitute player to star in London. From a pair of radars Harry Kane with became one of the most dangerous in Europe.
Last season, Son scored 23 goals in the Premier League and became the first Asian player to win through the goalscoring record. 12 of the goals were scored with his left foot, which should be Son’s weaker side.
– I knew he was right-footed, but I always made sure he always put socks, buttons, shoes, pants or anything on his left foot first so he would never forget the importance of bipedality, Dad told The Athletic (You’re moving to another service).
A saving grace away from the limelight
Tottenham already played in the Premier League in the fall of 2018, when its important star was on the other side of the globe, as the captain of his national team.
In the end, it all came down to a hair’s breadth, as Korea faced Japan in the final, and neither managed to score at the Pakansari Stadium in Indonesia. From the point of view of Son, the last chance to get the exemption he so longed for stretched beyond the actual game time in a tied situation.
The score was broken in overtime at the 93rd minute. Five Japanese players surrounded Son in the penalty area, but he passed the ball to his side and the shot resulted in the opening goal.
Barely ten minutes later, Son gave a cross from a free kick, which was headed into the goal. Japan managed to narrow, but not level.
Immediately after the final whistle, the cameras found Son running at full speed, jumping into the arms of his teammates and celebrating the most important victory of his career. Soon he was running around the field with Korean flags in both hands after avoiding what was described as the biggest threat in his football career.
In 2020, the mandatory stump service was easily handled when the football leagues were interrupted due to the pandemic. Son went to his home country to serve for three weeks, and special security measures had to be taken in the barracks so that the media, which fed the thirst for information of the passionate fans, could not spy on the events.
Even the championship of a lower-level national team tournament had a great personal value.
Son has named it himself Cristiano Ronaldo as a role model and in his home country, he is a similar idol. The game number, 7, also matches.
For years, Tottenham’s matches have attracted Korean spectators and journalists who have dedicated themselves to the cause of one man. Koreans visiting London also usually find their way to Tottenham’s training ground to see ‘Sonaldo’ arrive.
– His parents said he was really famous in Korea. “Sonny” always said it wasn’t so bad because he would never say he was a star. Then we got to Korea and everything was crazy. You can’t imagine it unless you see it with your own eyes, the former Tottenham player Kevin Wimmer said last year (switching to another service).
Asia has never produced such a good soccer player and in that respect, Son carries the pressure of the entire continent on his shoulders. According to CNN, he was already the most popular athlete in Asia in 2019. However, nothing compares to when Korea is playing in the World Cup and all eyes are on their adored captain.
Just weeks before the World Cup, Son was injured and had to undergo surgery for broken bones in his face. At least at that time, there was no certainty whether he would be able to play in the World Cup. The only thing that was certain was that he would be selected for the competition team, because Son’s importance to Korea is so huge.
– Do I feel like an ambassador for my country? Of course I have to be. When we play at three in the afternoon, it’s midnight in Korea. When we play the Champions League at eight o’clock, it’s five o’clock in the morning in Korea. Yet they watch me on TV. I have to give it to them. I take a lot of responsibility for that, Son told The Guardian in 2019.
Sources: The Guardian, AP, FourFourTwo, CNN, DW, The Athletic