Heung-min Son may be leaving Tottenham, but he departs Spurs as much more than just a club legend

While the son of Heung-Min fell to his knees in the San Mames Stadium of Bilbao after the last whistle of the UEFA Europa League final in May, the emotional mix between a festive scream and loud cry was a familiar face. It was the expected reaction of a player who had not only won his first title, but captain a team that broke a 17-year-old trophy-dried. It was also not a surprise when his teammates gave him one emotional hug after the other, signs of the Tottenham Hotspur Faithful decorated with his name and face. Son – and his teammate James MaddisonIn that respect – would not be the first player whose face was bright pink of crying, nor the first to be an indisputable fan favorite.

There is a sense of routine for these moments of sporting performance, just as there was a reliability that Son had during his 10 years as a Premier League player. His consistency as at least one of the most striking attackers of the competition almost disguises that he was also one of the superstars of the game during his time in England. Son, who has announced his intention to leave Spurs on Saturday and will probably become a member of MLS ‘Lafc, will not leave Europe’s Elites alone as a club legend; He was good and really one of the greats of his generation and delivered one of the greatest stories of the sport along the way.

The career of Son is a story about skill, style and surprise in almost the same measure to the point that he was universally respected, if not simply worshiped by the masses. However, the ease with which the applause came was the unique basis for overlooking his star. There were undoubtedly better players than Son in the last 10 years and those who were more spotlight, at least from a European perspective. It reduced its own attributes unfairly, but the signs are easy to recognize. After all, how would you describe a player with 173 goals in 454 Spurs games, a captain who consistently proud his country and has carved an unlikely home in North Londs as something other than a great one?

Son’s historical attacking output

Son came to Tottenham in the summer of 2015 Bayer Leverkusen For a 23-year-old player. It was a modest fee, the 11th highest paid by a Premier League club that summer, such as Manchester City-bound Kevin De Bruyne and ultimately Manchester United misfit Morgan Schneiderlin raise more money. There were a glimpse of something special with Son, even if he was not the boezere newcomer of the season – he became the most expensive Asian player at the time and already had an admirer in Ruud van Nistelrooy, who described him as a “huge talent” When an 18-year-old son was his teammate in Hamburg. He started somewhat slowly with 8 goals and six assists in 40 games. However, that was his only target season with one digit in North London, which hit the ground the following season.

In almost no time, son became the type of attacker who liked to find a place in every team. He stimulated a versatility that illustrated a player who did not have a preferred position in attack and was covered with both feet, usability and non -skill that fits the pace of this generation and the power of power. It is a style that was often visible and inherently entertaining is the first Premier League goal against Crystal Palace in September 2015 marked the first of many characteristics Burnley was the best version of it.

He was the opposite of a tap-in trader, and in more than one way. As diligent as a Tempo and Power player can be, son mixed many stylish moments along the way. His first season figure included a goal that was scored with a Backheel film against WatfordHe noted a scissor kick goal against Swansea in the next campaign, and his 100th Premier League goal was a curling shot against Brighton and Hove Albion.

His biggest mistake was that he was striped, but it was a Nitpicky argument that perhaps was cloudy by the fact that other attackers were more productive, but the figures make it difficult to deny that son was not only under elites; He was actually one of them. At best, Son offered a perfect balance between quality and quantity with 173 goals and 94 assists for spurs for a decade of excellence, with fifth place in the list of objectives of the team of all time, 16th in the Premier League and 17th in the assist Tally of the division. Perhaps the most impressive, Son has been in third place for target contributions in the Premier League since his debut in September 2015 with 198, behind behind Harry Kane with 231 and Mohamed is wrong With 270. He is also the only Asian Golden Boot winner of the Premier League and the prize with Salah shares in the 2021-22 campaign.

The biggest disadvantage of Son was in the meantime that Kane was excited too much of the spotlights, because an academic product came up if the England captain and the biggest goal scorer of his time will probably do. Even when Spurs felt like Kane’s team in the eyes of many, it was actually more a double act. The two played together seamlessly and developed an unparalleled chemistry that was an example of two great sporting storylines – a private soil that rises through the ranks, professionally combined with a teammate whose house was half a world away but mapped out his own impossible journey to the top. The couple has rightly earned a place in the Premier League’s history books by combining 47 goals, making them the most productive goal duo in the top flight of England.

His last season at Spurs, by those who kept a close eye on, was marred by injuries and perhaps the fact that age slows down for no one, but even then the son’s output was fantastic. He may not have been at his best, but 11 goals and 11 assists in 46 games is absolutely not a modest show, although the most prominent memory of the campaign will lift the Europa League and become the first Spurs captain in 17 years. It is a suitable output for a player who played at large and small moments, even if it was not clear that it was his last act.

“Let’s say I’m a legend,” Son said in an interview after the game After the Europa League final. ‘Why not? Only today, only today … seven between years, nobody [had] I did it with such great players but today today. I will probably say today, I am a legend of this club. “

‘One of the best people I have ever met’

It is alarmingly easy to reduce the impact of the son as one that is the company-controlled IS-the Eurocentric viewpoint of the sport that places like Asia are more associated with cash gripping and the marketing of tours or the last phases of players’ career than something else. The journey from Son from Zuid -Korea to England is not only a source of inspiration and a change in pace for a sport in which unexpected superstars are scarce. No matter how easy it is to quantify the effect that son has had in the attack of Spurs and perhaps on their bank account, his story is an example of the immaterial, inexplicable romance that sport illustrates at their best.

“As a child I came to North – 23 years old, a very young age, a boy who could not speak English,” said Son on Saturday in Seoul, almost 50 miles of his birthplace of Chunchon, a CIT with a population of less than 300,000. “I leave this club like a man. Thanks to all the Spurs fans who gave me so much love. It felt like it was my home.”

Son rose from barely knowing English – his third language afterwards Learning German by viewing episodes from “Spongebob squarepants” – To create a slice at home in North Londs, so that the city has left a lifelong friend Wales International Ben Davies. Son attended Davies’ wedding and is the godfather of his son, Ralph, who made it difficult for the Korean player to even break the news on Davies and his other teammates.

“[Davies] Fully respects my decision, “Son said.” Everyone too. What can I say? It is very difficult to tell my teammates because I will probably spend more time with them than my family, because we travel together, spend time together on the training field every day, five or six hours a day. I think we know each other so well. Everyone was disappointed, but in a sense also very happy for me. That was my feeling, but I don’t know what they actually felt. Fortunately they seemed disappointed when I told them. “

During his 10 years he earned countless admirers with Tottenham, including Maddison, who was incredibly emotional when celebrating the son of the Europa League Win.

“We had a moment on the field at the end and I just told him how much I loved him, worship him what he stands for as a person, and to take everything,” Said Maddison in May. “He is one of the best people I have ever met. I love him so much. I am so happy that he had that moment in Bilbao, to cancel the trophy for this club, the club he loves. He has been here for 10 years and to watch him and to share that moment with him, this is our work, this is what we do with my family.

The Spurs Faithful were just as happy for the son, who goes down as perhaps the Main character for the team in the past decade. Kane will be the first name that remembers history when he looks back on this period. Toby Alderweireld Will go down as the best player while the team made a trip to the 2019 UEFA Champions League final. Mauricio Pochettino will be credited as the man who rose the best team of Tottenham in the recent memory. Son, however, defines the end of this era.

He is the last remarkable member of the Pochettino group to stay around at Spurs, but his estate is completely separate from the celebrated five-year spell of the Argentinian in North London. Son is not a perfect player, but he is a perfect story, a story in which every test and oppression was not only worthwhile, but was also characterized by layers of wonderfulness. Stardom is inherently unlikely, even more for a player from a small city in South Korea who arrived at the Premier League in his mid-twenties with a limited fanfare. His legacy is greater than his excellence on the field is an example of the grit and passion fans craving the players in their favorite teams, more than anyone. Son also survived them, even if this can be attributed to the malpractice of the largest clubs in Europe and gathered the most historical moments of Spurs en route. In the end, no one was appropriate to score the first goal in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium or to eliminate the trophy that ended their 17-year-old drought. Spurs were never completely Kane’s team or the Pochettino team during this period, or that of someone else, in that regard. For the combination of events and experiences, Tottenham Hotspur was good and really the team of Son, the 33-year-old left behind a unique legacy that He summarized While Confetti still strewn the field in Bilbao.

“I was able to make my perfect puzzle.”