How Levy’s unexpected visit set Son on the trail of Golden Boot
►spurs chairman’s persistence and careful handling by various managers has resulted in the striker becoming a major star
Son Heung-min is the type of signing every scout, sporting director and coach would normally clamour to claim. But at Tottenham Hotspur, there is no argument over who should take the credit for the arrival of the South Korean seven years ago.
Chairman Daniel Levy got more stick over failing to land Saido Berahino, now of Sheffield Wednesday, from West Bromwich Albion than any credit he received for signing Son for £22 million in the summer of 2015. But, just as missing out on Berahino proved to be a lucky escape, Son must rank as Tottenham’s best signing of the past seven years and it was the hands-on approach of Levy, which has not always worked out for the best, that proved crucial.
Levy did not have an invitation to Bayer Leverkusen’s Bayarena stadium to meet Son when he turned up unannounced with the intention of signing him. He waited until Son and his representatives consented to talk to him, and would not leave until an agreement had been reached.
That persistence has certainly paid off. In seven seasons with the club, Son has scored 127 goals in 321 games and with 19 league goals to his name this season, he now has a Golden Boot in his sights.
His tally is just three fewer than leading scorer Mohamed Salah ahead of their meeting at Anfield tonight. Antonio Conte has become the latest Tottenham head coach to fall in love with Son, underlined by the embrace the Italian shared with the player after he had scored his stunning second goal in the victory over Leicester City last Sunday.
Conte had joked that he did not know whether Son was right- or left-footed and the goal had been his 11th in the league this season with his left foot, the most by a rightfooted player in a single campaign.
He has also registered seven league assists, more than Kevin De Bruyne, who finished second to Salah in this season’s Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year vote.
“I knew him in the past, but now to see him during a training session, you can understand the quality of the player,” Conte said. “He is a player that wants to improve himself. This is the main reason you are seeing him in this peak of form.
“He is scoring a lot, but at the same time he helps the team a lot without the ball.
“When this happens, I am very happy because I understand I have a player that thinks not only for himself, but thinks for the team.”
Son is renowned for his happy nature, hard-working attitude and willingness to try to help new foreign players settle in – as he has done with Cristian Romero.
He does not always gravitate towards the other stars in the Spurs squad, able to move between the different groups of friends and is just as likely to be seen having lunch with one of the club’s up-and-coming players as Harry Kane.
After both moved to Tottenham in the same summer from the Bundesliga, Son initially struck up a bromance with the club’s former Austrian defender Kevin Wimmer. Now, Son counts Ben Davies among his closest friends at the club.
Non-playing staff have also felt the kind nature of Son, who has been known to pay for a top chef to cook high-end Korean food for all Tottenham employees at the club’s training ground, and has sent heartfelt messages to office workers who have left for new jobs.
Given his impact on and off the pitch, together with being a favourite of Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho and now Conte, it seems incredible that nobody at Tottenham can recall the club having to field serious interest in Son.
One source said: “If there has been, then Daniel [Levy] certainly hasn’t let on to anybody!”
That could in part be down to the fact that Son has for a long time been cast as Kane’s support act, but he is on course to become the first Spurs player in eight seasons to outscore the England captain in the league.
It is also noticeable that it is Son’s image, rather than Kane’s, that shoppers on London’s Oxford and Regent Streets will see modelling clothes for Ralph Lauren and promoting Tumi luggage.
Just as he deserves the bulk of the credit for signing Son, Levy’s sensitive handling of the player, together with former manager Pochettino, has been key to the bond that has developed between the forward and Tottenham. Son could have slipped through Spurs’ fingers at the end of what proved to be a difficult first season in England, when he scored only four league goals and was held back by injury.
He subsequently admitted he wanted to leave, only for Pochettino to intervene. “He came to see me and said he needed my help, and I said: ‘OK, always my door is open’,” Pochettino recalled. “After the Olympic Games, his idea was to leave to go to Germany. In his mind, he would like to move, but in the end he accepted the decision to stay and fight for his position.”
Son had been allowed to delay making his Tottenham debut after representing South Korea in the Asian Games; four years later – by now an established player – the club permitted him to play in the tournament again, even though it meant he could not figure in the Premier League until the end of September.
But Son returned an Asian Games gold-medal winner, which also allowed him to delay his mandatory military service until 2020, when Tottenham released him for a shortened three-week stint during the coronavirus shutdown.
“Son not playing the first few months because of the Asian Games, no one talks about that,” Pochettino said. “Today, Sonny is at Tottenham because we allowed him to go and play two competitions that weren’t compulsory, not being selfish and saying, ‘No, Sonny needs to stay here’.”
Those types of decisions undoubtedly contributed to Son signing a new four-year contract with Tottenham last July, despite the club finishing last season in disappointing fashion and the fact Kane was attempting to engineer a move to Manchester City.
Kane remains Tottenham’s top earner by some considerable distance, but, just as Egypt stops for Salah, Son will be the star of the show when Spurs visit South Korea for the club’s pre-season tour this summer. He may yet return home with the Golden Boot to add to his ever-growing reputation.