Sonny | 400

2015/2016

It was at 10 o’clock on the morning of Friday 28 August in 2015 when the news was confirmed on Tottenham Hotspur’s official website – Heung-Min Son was joining Spurs. And so began a relationship that has blossomed into a true love affair.  Signed from Bayer Leverkusen, the move was initially subject to a work permit and international clearance, but once those formalities were approved on 9 September, the South Korean forward was a fully-fledged Spurs player. Born in Chuncheon - the capital of Gangwon Province in Korea - on 8 July 1992, Son started his career with the youth set up at FC Seoul before taking the bold decision to leave home at 16 with the hope of making it as a success in Europe. He joined Hamburg SV’s Academy in November 2009 and would quickly make a name for himself at Hamburg and then Leverkusen, scoring 49 goals in 165 games in Germany. Describing his attributes in his first interview after joining Spurs, he said: “I like to play a passing game and prefer to work with offensive players who are dominant and can scare the opponents. I am right footed, but I’ve trained with both feet so I can use them freely. Bold and daring - this is how I like to try to play." He certainly talked a good game, but Spurs fans were keen to discover just what sort of player the Club had signed. They didn’t need to wait long to find out…

Up and running

“He is young, fast and exciting who can play in several different attacking positions,” said Sonny’s new Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino, who then handed the player his Spurs debut for our trip to Sunderland on 13 September 2015, playing him on the right flank in our 4-2-3-1 formation at the Stadium of Light. He lasted just over an hour before being replaced Andros Townsend in Tottenham’s 1-0 win. Four days later, the first real glimpse of Son’s potential as he got his Spurs account up and running with two goals in three minutes of his first-ever appearance at White Hart Lane. Trailing to an early penalty in our Europa League clash with FK Qarabag, the South Korean equalised when he poked home Andros Townsend’s cross before driving in Dele Alli’s pass to give us the lead moments later. We went on to win 3-1 and he became the first Spurs player to score twice on his home debut for 10 years.

Food for thought

 While Sonny was showing his abilities as a player on the pitch with his two-goal performance on his home debut, at the Club’s training centre he also showed his qualities as a person. The day after his goals against Qarabag, Son arranged for some chefs specialising in Korean food to visit Hotspur Way to provide some samples of their cuisine for everyone to enjoy. It was a wonderful gesture which showed the measure of the man and gave his colleagues an insight into the type of character they had welcomed into the dressing room. And while he was endearing himself to his team-mates off the pitch, he did the same to the Spurs faithful back out on the grass when he made his home Premier League debut against Crystal Palace. Featuring on the front of the matchday programme for the fixture against the Eagles, Sonny proved to be the perfect cover star by scoring the only goal of the game in the 68^th minute - a fine strike to open his Premier League account. “I’m really happy because we won the game and of course because I scored,” beamed Sonny after the game. “It was really amazing. The fans were incredible.” It was the dream start to life in north London for Son and the season itself was one of real promise for Spurs, who were battling with Leicester City at the top of the table in search of a first-ever Premier League title. Ultimately though, there was disappointment as we fell short, finishing third in the table. Sonny ended the season with eight goals to his name in 40 appearances as he acclimatised to the hustle and bustle of English football, finding himself coming off the bench regularly during the campaign to help him adjust to the pace of the game. After his bright start, the 2015/16 season ended on a low note for Sonny and for Spurs but, with a full season in England under his belt, he was confident better times were ahead.

2016/2017

Heung-Min Son’s 2016/17 campaign was the season the goals started to flow and the awards started to roll in. Feeling much more settled after a year in north London, Son started to express himself much more on the pitch and his performances helped Spurs mount another challenge on the Premier League title. It wasn't all plain-sailing though. He hadn’t featured as much in his first season as he had hoped and hadn’t performed to the high standards he expects of himself when he was selected. Added to that, Son missed the first few weeks of the 2016/17 season as he was on international duty with South Korea, selected for the Rio Olympics as one of three over-age players. Disappointment ensued though, as his country lost to Honduras in the quarter-finals. By the time he returned to N17, Spurs had already played three league matches and were unbeaten but Sonny was thrown straight into the starting line-up for the trip to Stoke City on 10 September. He repaid the faith of his manager Mauricio Pochettino in some style, scoring twice in an impressive 4-0 win and repeated feat the two weeks later, netting both goals in a 2-1 victory at Middlesbrough. Four goals in three Premier League games – it took him 27 matches to reach that tally the previous season – meant he was named Premier League Player of the Month for September, the first Asian player to win such an award.

A fitting finale

 September 2016 saw Son also score his first Champions League for Spurs when he netted the only goal of the game against CSKA Moscow in the Russian capital but it was a disappointing European campaign for the Club. Playing European home games at Wembley Stadium due to construction work taking place at White Hart Lane, we lost at home to Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen – the latter a particularly tough defeat for Son against his former club. We also lost to Gent in the Europa League Last 16. In domestic competition though, we were flying. This was our last-ever season at White Hart Lane as we were knocking it down to make way for a new world-class stadium and the team made sure the old ground received a fitting send-off. Spurs remained unbeaten at the Lane throughout the entire 2016/17 season – drawing two and winning 21 of the 23 matches we played in N17 that term – as this time we battled with Chelsea for the Premier League title and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup. And, just like the team, Sonny stepped it up in the second half of the season. FA Cup goals against Aston Villa and Wycombe Wanderers were followed up with his first-ever Spurs hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition of Millwall in the quarter-finals, the last-ever FA Cup tie at the Lane. Back in the Premier League, he scored against Burnley before finding the target with one of the most passionately celebrated goals throughout his Spurs career. With Chelsea setting a relentless pace at the top of the table, we couldn’t afford to drop points but were trailing 1-0 at Swansea City on 5 April 2017 with just two minutes remaining when Dele Alli equalised. Better was to follow though, as Sonny popped up to give us the lead in the 91^st-minute to send his team-mates, the away bench and our travelling fans wild with celebration! He ended up scoring five goals that April and once again deservedly won the league’s Player of the Month award, the only player to win it twice that season. Spurs were unable to overhaul Chelsea in the race for the title and lost to the Blues in the FA Cup semi-final as well, while Sonny finished the 2016/17 campaign with 21 goals, the best season of his career so far. It was an emotional end to the campaign for Spurs as we said farewell to White Hart Lane after 118 years with a 2-1 win against Manchester United in our last-ever game.

2017/2018

We had to up sticks and leave our little corner of London for the 2017/18 season as construction work on our state-of-the-art new stadium began in earnest. It was most definitely a season of change with Wembley Stadium becoming our temporary ‘home’ but for Heung-Min Son and his team-mates, the focus remained the same. Regardless of where we were playing, winning football matches was key and, although we took a little while to warm to our new surroundings at Wembley, Spurs enjoyed a good record at English football’s national arena. Sonny set his own personal record during 2017/18 with his 53 appearances for Spurs the most he has ever made during a single campaign. He missed just one Premier League game and would have perhaps been slightly disappointed to only manage 18 goals throughout the season considering his consistency on the pitch. Spurs had some great performances this term, including home wins over Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United, not to mention a strong group stage in the Champions League and reaching the FA Cup semi-finals once again.

 History maker

 As the goals continued to flow for Son, so the records started to tumble. Having scored his first Premier League goal against Crystal Palace back in September 2015, his 20-yard curler against the Eagles in November 2017 not only won us the game but saw him become the top-scoring Asian player in Premier League history. That goal at Wembley Stadium was his 20^th in the competition, overtaking his compatriot and former Manchester United star Ji-Sung Park. “Today is a very happy day for me,” said Sonny after the Palace win. “I scored, we won, I broke the record and my family was here, my brother, my friends, it was a special day for me. "I can't compare to Ji," he added. "He is a legend and my idol. They are still so proud of him at home. It's difficult for an Asian to play in the Premier League. It still is. And he was the one who did it first so it was even harder for him. I am still hoping to play like him and bring fans like him and have an impact like him but I am not there yet."

 Cup heartbreak

It was no surprise to see Son open his 2017/18 goalscoring account with a goal against Borussia Dortmund in our excellent 3-1 Champions League win at Wembley in September 2017. The forward had already scored six times in just eight games against the German giants, netting for Hamburg and Leverkusen while also scoring in our Europa League defeat in his first season in north London. Goals followed against Liverpool, Crystal Palace, another against Dortmund in Germany and at Watford before Sonny went on a run of scoring in five consecutive home games, the last of those coming in a 4-0 win over Everton early in 2018. And he then hit seven goals in an impressive four-game spell with doubles against Rochdale in the FA Cup and Huddersfield and Bournemouth in the Premier League. His other strike in that run gave Spurs the lead at home to Juventus in the second leg of our Champions League Last 16 tie, putting us in control after a 2-2 draw in Turin, only for the Italians to hit back with two goals in four minutes to send us tumbling out of the competition. FA Cup success was on the cards though, as we reached the semi-finals and faced Manchester United at Wembley Stadium – the place we’d called home all season. But we couldn’t make that advantage count and lost 2-1. The positives were that we brushed off that disappointment to confirm our place in the top four and secure Champions League football once again for the 2018/19 campaign. Sonny had continued to delight our fans during the season, cementing his place as a key component in our side…and his name was soon to be written in Spurs folklore.

2018/2019

 Fully settled in north London, loved by the Spurs faithful and enjoying his football, it wasn’t a difficult decision for Heung-Min Son to commit his long-term future to Spurs when he signed a new five-year deal in July 2018. There was further good news for Sonny the following month too, as he captained South Korea to glory in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia thanks to an extra-time victory over Japan. However, while he was representing his country, he missed three of our Premier League matches and, when he returned to England, it took Son a while to hit his best form. Still playing at Wembley Stadium while our new arena was being completed, we made a poor start to our Champions League campaign, taking just one point from our first three group matches as we lost to Internazionale and Barcelona and drew with PSV, although our Premier League form was solid enough. Son didn’t score for Spurs until late October when he netted twice in a League Cup win at West Ham United in what was his 150^th appearance for the Club. Slowly but surely though, things started to change. Another new season, another new contract. Settled at Spurs and enjoying his football, it wasn’t a difficult decision for Son to sign a new five-year deal. Good news away from Spurs too, as he captained South Korea to glory in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia thanks to an extra-time victory over Japan. But 2018/19 began slowly. A difficult start in the Champions League. No goal for Son until late October when scoring twice at West Ham United on what was his 150^th appearance for Spurs. Gradually though, things started to change…

A solo stunner, part 1

 When Chelsea arrived at Wembley Stadium on 24 November, Spurs had won four on the trot and sat fourth in the Premier League table. Goals from Dele Alli and Harry Kane put us 2-0 up at half-time and then, nine minutes into the second period, Dele played a pass down the right flank which Son latched on to. Up against Jorginho, he burst past the Chelsea midfielder and surged into the penalty area, skipped past the challenge of David Luiz and showed great composure to slide the ball beyond Kepa and into the far corner – a goal of pure class! It was his 50^th goal for Spurs, and was rightly voted Premier League Goal of the Month and the Club’s Goal of the Season.

 History maker

 During the final two months of 2018, Spurs were on a roll. Despite our slow start, we qualified for the Champions League knockout stages in dramatic circumstances with late goals giving us wins over PSV and Inter, along with a vital draw against Barcelona at the Nou Camp which guaranteed second place in our group. The goals started to flow for Sonny as well, scoring against Arsenal at the Emirates in a League Cup win and netting doubles as Spurs destroyed Everton (6-2) and Southampton (5-0). And, as we moved into the New Year, he scored in four straight games including an obligatory goal against Dortmund as Spurs reached the Champions League quarter-finals, where familiar opponents awaited in the shape of Manchester City. First though, a momentous occasion as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was finally open for business. A breath-taking sporting colosseum built to a high-spec the likes of which the world had never seen before, we were privileged to call it home. And so, on 3 April 2019, we hosted Crystal Palace in the first-ever senior competitive game to take place at our world-class arena. A special night needed a special moment and of course, Sonny provided it. There were a few nerves as the second half began with the game still goalless but in the 55^th minute, Son received a pass from Christian Eriksen and attacked the Palace defence with menace before hitting a shot which found its way into the net via a slight deflection. History was made and Heung-Min Son had written it. Spurs won the game 2-0 and six days later, we welcomed Manchester City to our brand new stadium for its first Champions League fixture. Once again, it was Sonny who stole the headlines, cutting through the tension to score the only goal of the game with 12 minutes left to give us a narrow advantage ahead of the second leg. His impact on the tie didn’t end there. Up in Manchester, the return game ebbed and flowed and crackled with excitement and passion, a goal-laden match full of unrelenting drama. After just 11 minutes at the Etihad it was 2-2 on the night with Sonny having netted two vital away goals but City stormed back to lead 4-2 until Fernando Llorente prodded home in the 73^rd minute to make it 4-3, and 4-4 on aggregate. Deep in stoppage time, City thought they’d scored what would have been the winner but then VAR spotted an offside in the build up and the goal was ruled out. Despair turned to delight for Spurs and Sonny as we booked our place in the semi-finals and a showdown with Ajax, although Son would miss the first leg against the Dutch side due to suspension as our crazy Champions League adventure continued. We lost the home game 1-0, then trailed 2-0 on the night at half-time in the return in Amsterdam before Lucas Moura produced an incredible hat-trick – including a 96^th-minute winner – to see us through to the Champions League Final on the most glorious of glory glory nights. Unfortunately, the showpiece against Liverpool in Madrid ended in disappointment as we lost 2-0 and the images of Sonny sitting on the pitch at the final whistle, tears in his eyes, was felt by everyone of a Spurs persuasion. So near, yet so far.

2019/2020

The 2019/20 campaign took place during unprecedented times as the world was left in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a global lockdown taking place as the virus swept across the planet, football followed suit and the entire season was brought to a halt in early March 2020. Before that though, the season had been one of ups and downs for Heung-Min Son. Off the mark for the campaign with a brace against Crystal Palace on 14 September, his next goal came in a crushing 2-7 home defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League. He also netted twice in big home and away wins over Red Star Belgrade, but the team’s form overall was disappointing and in early November, there was a change of Head Coach as Mauricio Pochettino was replaced by Jose Mourinho. Sonny netted the first goal of the Mourinho era when he opened the scoring in a 3-2 win at West Ham United but low points came with a red card in a home defeat to Chelsea and an arm injury sustained against Aston Villa in mid-February, which might well have kept him out for the rest of the season had the pandemic not ended the campaign prematurely anyway. Bizarrely, Sonny picked up the injury early in the game at Villa Park and yet continued to play, scoring twice including our last-minute winner! They were his 50^th and 51^st Spurs goals. He had been in fine scoring form at that stage too, netting six goals in five consecutive matches before injury and the pandemic struck. However, it was a sensational goal against Burnley on 7 December that will always be associated with Sonny’s 2019/20 season.

A solo stunner, part 2

No-one inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 7 December 2019 will ever forget the goal Sonny scored against Burnley that afternoon. The Clarets were already trailing 2-0 when a free-kick into our box was touched away by Jan Vertonghen, with Son collecting the ball two yards outside his own area. Little more than 10 seconds later, the ball was in the back of the Burnley net and no-one else had touched it! Sonny didn’t have too many options ahead of him initially, so started on a run which took him away from Robbie Brady and James Tarkowski, he beat Dwight McNeil on half-way, skipped past Erik Pieters mid-way inside Burnley’s half and then left Matthew Lowton and Ben Mee trailing in his wake as he raced into the area and lifted the ball over Nick Pope. A quite stunning goal. “When you score this kind of goal at home, it makes me so proud. It feels amazing,” revealed Sonny after the game. We went on to win 5-0 and, unsurprisingly, Sonny’s goal swept the board. Voted the Premier League’s Goal of the Month and Goal of the Season, it also won the FIFA Puskas Award for best goal at The Best FIFA Football Awards in December 2020.

Project Restart

By the time football was allowed to return in mid June, Sonny was back from his arm injury and was in the side for our first game back in Project Restart – with Manchester United the visitors to N17. Matches were now being played behind closed doors as a lockdown continued and it took some getting used to seeing stadiums empty with Premier League football taking place. We drew 1-1 with United in our first game back and Son only added two more goals to his tally that season, netting in our 2-1 home win against Arsenal and a 3-1 victory at Newcastle United. In total, he scored 18 times in 41 appearances during a stop-start 2019/20.

2020/2021

Football continued to be played behind closed doors in the 2020/21 season as Spurs featured in a campaign which had started with plenty of promise but tailed off in disappointment. Top of the table in early December after just one defeat in our opening 12 Premier League matches which included some stunning results, we ultimately finished seventh. Heung-Min Son’s personal season followed a similar path. The 2020/21 campaign was his best goalscoring season so far in his Spurs career as he ended it with 22 goals from 51 matches, although 14 of those came before the New Year. It was a shame there were no supporters present for some of our matches in the first half of the season. Imagine the scenes in the away ends at Southampton as Sonny achieved the incredible feat of scoring four times in our 5-2 win, or at Old Trafford when he netted twice more as we destroyed Manchester United 6-1 with our biggest-ever away win against the Red Devils. Imagine the cacophony of noise there would have been at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as we beat both Arsenal and Manchester City 2-0, Sonny opening the scoring early in both victories. There were actually 2,000 supporters allowed in to that north London derby who were fortunate to see Son score an absolute screamer, but imagine a full house celebrating! But for all the highs, the season ended in frustration. We won just five of our final 13 matches and disappointing defeats came in all cup competitions, particularly the League Cup as we reached the final only to lose to Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, with Son playing the full game but unable to make an impact in his second cup final with Spurs.

Awesome foursome!

 After an opening day home defeat to Everton, our first Premier League win of 2020/21 came at St Mary’s – and what a game it was for Sonny! For the first time in his club career, he scored four times as we recovered from going a goal down to blow Southampton away in the 5-2 victory, showing his ruthlessness in front of goal with some clinical finishing. He certainly had team-mate Harry Kane to thank as well though, with the forward setting up all four of Son’s goals – the first time in Premier League history that someone had scored four goals all assisted by the same player. "It's incredible to score four goals in the Premier League, it's a big honour," said Sonny in his post-match interview. "I wouldn't have scored four goals without this guy (Kane). He's amazing. Four assists, he deserved the man of the match today. We've been working for five seasons now together, we know what we like."

Personal accolades

While it might not have been the best season for Spurs, there were a number of milestones for Sonny along the way. First up, that four-goal haul at Southampton – the first of his career – and the unprecedented link-up with Harry Kane in that game. Then came his performances during October as he scored four more Premier League goals against Manchester United (two), West Ham United and Burnley, all of which combined to see him win another Premier League Player of the Month award, his third. Sonny then opened up 2021 in style with an historic and significant landmark. He’d been stuck on 99 Spurs goals for a few games, but it was only a matter of time before he hit his century and he duly delivered it with our second in a 3-0 home win over Leeds United on 2 January. He became only the 18th player in the Club’s history to score 100 goals and the first from outside the UK and Ireland to achieve the feat. Kane provided the assist for that strike, meaning the duo had combined for a Premier League goal for the 13th time that season, equalling the record for an entire campaign, set by Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton for Blackburn Rovers in 1994/95. Sure enough, the Kane and Son strike-force broke that record when Sonny set up his team-mate in our 4-1 defeat of Crystal Palace on 7 March. At the end of the season, the dynamic duo were both selected in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year, Sonny included for the first time as he ended the season with 17 league goals in 37 appearances.

2021/22

Only three years after signing a new contract, Heung-Min Son was once again putting pen to paper when he agreed another new deal in July 2021, committing his future to the Club until 2025. Going into the 2021/22 campaign, he’d scored 107 goals in 280 Spurs appearances and was loving life in north London. “It was already a big honour to play here for six years, the Club have shown me massive, massive respect and obviously I’m very happy to be here. It’s like home, especially with the fans, the players, the staff. There was no decision. It was easy. I’m so happy to be here and will be so glad to see the fans again soon." The fans were delighted to see Sonny again too, as he scored the first goal of the new season in a massive opening day win over Manchester City at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with a new Head Coach at the helm in the shape of Nuno Espirito Santo. However, we couldn’t maintain our bright start to the campaign and, as form dipped, a change in manager saw Antonio Conte appointed in November. Once again, Son scored the first goal of his reign in a 3-2 Europa Conference League victory over Vitesse in N17, which meant the forward had netted the first goal in each of Spurs’ last three permanent managers’ first game.

The perfect combo

 Throughout his career at Spurs, Son has enjoyed great relationships with many of our players, but his on-pitch understanding with Harry Kane was on another level. There was almost telepathic chemistry between the pair, each just seeming to know where the other player was at any time on the pitch and, when in possession, they would know what type of run or move the other would make and could pick them out before defenders even knew what was happening. Having broken the goal combination for a single Premier League season in 2020/21, the deadly duo went one better in 2021/22. They equalled the all-time Premier League goal combinations record of 36 during a superb 3-2 win at Manchester City, tying with Chelsea duo Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. Then, a week later on 23 February 2022, they moved to the top outright with their 37th goal combination as Kane assisted Son to score our last goal in a 4-0 demolition of Leeds United at Elland Road.

Golden wonder!

The 2021/22 campaign was certainly one to remember for Sonny – arguably his best in his Spurs career so far. During the course of the season, he became only the ninth player to reach 50 European appearances for us, passed 200 appearances in the Premier League and reached 300 games in all competitions for the Club.

He won the Premier League's Player of the Month award for October, broke the Premier League goal combinations record with Harry Kane, won the Club's August, February, March and April Goal of the Month awards, broke into the Club's all-time top goalscorers list and, at the end of the campaign, won One Hotspur Player of the Season, One Hotspur Juniors' Player of the Season and Official Supporters’ Clubs’ Player of the Season. He even met Spider Man - actor and Spurs fan Tom Holland! But the big one was achieved on the final day of the campaign. Sonny had been in electric form over the second half of the season, netting 13 times including a hat-trick in a 4-0 win at Aston Villa and a goal in a vital win over Arsenal in May, prior to the final day of the campaign. Going into our last game of the season at Norwich City, Son had scored 21 Premier League goals and sat one behind Liverpool’s Mo Salah in the race for the Golden Boot. The Egyptian striker netted in the Reds’ win against Wolves, while Sonny scored two excellent goals at Carrow Road to leave the pair tied on 23 goals. It was Sonny’s first-ever Premier League Golden Boot and the 5-0 win over Norwich secured a return to Champions League football for 2022/23.

2022/2023

Having raised his own bar even further by winning the Premier League Golden Boot in 2021/22, big things were expected of Heung-Min Son in 2022/23. However, by his own high standards and by his own admission, it proved to be a tough season for Sonny. Although he featured prominently throughout the campaign, starting 44 of the 47 games he played for us, the goals just didn’t come – certainly in the early stages. Spurs made a bright start to the season again and we remained undefeated in our opening seven matches, with Sonny starting all of them. But it just wasn’t clicking for him and the longer his run went on without scoring, the more frustrating a figure he cut. The fans were willing him to score, he was still getting into positions to score, but his sharpness and spark wasn’t quite there. In our ninth game, Head Coach Antonio Conte made the decision to take Son out of the limelight and kept him on the substitutes’ bench when Leicester City visited Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 17 September 2022. It was a bold move – but it paid off in spectacular fashion. Just before the hour mark, Sonny replaced Richarlison with the score 3-2 in our favour after five goals in the opening 47 minutes. Perhaps it was a feeling of anger at being left out of the starting line-up, or perhaps he felt he had to prove himself again - whatever the reason or the emotion, our South Korean striker responded in style. In the 73^rd minute, he finally got off the mark for the season with a 25-yard right foot curler before repeating the feat 11 minutes later with an even better strike off his left foot. And, just to show he hadn’t lost any of his hunger, Sonny completed his hat-trick with four minutes left, sliding the ball home in front of an ecstatic South Stand. He was back!

Sonny the centurion

Sonny’s treble against Leicester certainly lifted his mood, however his goals in the rest of 2022/23 came in more of a trickle than a flood. In a season unusually interrupted by the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in November and December, he did eventually reach double figures in the Premier League as he ended with 10 in the competition. He finished the campaign with 14 to his name in all competitions – his lowest tally since his first season with us in 2015/16. He did, however, reach a significant milestone during the season, scoring his 100^th Premier League to become the first Asian player to reach that landmark and only the 34^th player ever to hit a century of goals in the competition. It came against Brighton & Hove Albion at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 8 April 2023 and what a strike it was – another of Sonny’s classic curlers, this one with his right foot into the top corner, a perfect way to join an elite group of players.

2023/2024

The 2023/24 season saw some major changes at Spurs, one of them benefitting Heung-Min Son as he became the latest in a line of world-class players to be appointed as Club Captain. During the close season, Ange Postecoglou was named as our new Head Coach and among his first key decisions was to choose a new skipper for the team. Hugo Lloris had been the owner of the armband ever since Sonny joined in 2015/16 but he was looking for a new adventure away from Spurs, while Harry Kane – who was vice-captain – left to join Bayern Munich just before the start of the season. At 31 years of age, with plenty of experience at the top level of the game and skipper of South Korea for a number of years, Sonny was the perfect candidate to take over the captaincy and his new Head Coach certainly thought so. “It’s such a big honour to captain this huge club,” revealed Son, when the announcement was made. “It was big surprise and a very proud moment. I’ve already said to the players that everyone should feel like a captain, on and off the pitch. It’s a new season, a fresh start and I will give everything for this shirt and this armband.” And he wasted no time in showing that he took his role very seriously. On the opening day of the season at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium, the players unusually conducted a pre-match huddle just yards away from the away end, rather than in the middle of the pitch. It was a simple yet powerful gesture, one that immediately showed an affinity with our supporters – and it was all Sonny’s idea. Postecoglou’s first game in charge ended 2-2 and afterwards, James Maddison – who, along with Cristian Romero, was named vice captain – explained: “Sonny texted me last night and said I’ve got an idea for the huddle, instead of doing it in the middle of the pitch, we’ll do it over by the fans. “I think they appreciated that, just to show we’re all together. It was a nice idea from Sonny.”

Joining the elite

Starting the 2023/24 season on 372 appearances for Spurs, it was just a matter of time before Sonny became just the 14th player in the Club’s history to reach the momentous milestone of 400 games. He’s been a model of consistency throughout his nine years in north London, making 40 or more appearances in every single season with his lowest tally campaign coming in his very first year. By achieving 400 Club appearances, he joins a list of Spurs Legends including the likes of Steve Perryman, Gary Mabbutt, Pat Jennings and Glenn Hoddle, along with former team-mates Hugo Lloris and Harry Kane, and is well worthy of his place among the elite. Sonny is also now closing in on 300 Premier League appearances, and will become only the third Spurs player to do so after Lloris and Kane, and moved into the top five of our all-time top goalscorers with a late winner against Fulham on 31 March - his 160th goal for us.

Heung-Min Son - a true Spurs great in every sense of the word.

Written by Jon Rayner...