Spurs' No.7 helped them end their 17-year trophy drought in May, and the north Londoners are better off letting him run his contract down than selling
No matter which way you spin it, Son Heung-min is a Tottenham legend. Goals? Check. Iconic moments? Check. Fan adoration? Check. Global influence? Check. Silverware? At last, check.
The South Korean marked his 10th season at Spurs by bringing home the club's first trophy since the League Cup of 2008, and he sat at right at the front of the open-top bus which crawled down N17's High Road for a first celebratory parade since 1991. The 'nicest man in football' shed tears when the final whistle sounded at the end of May's Europa League final as if he were truly one of Tottenham's own, finally a champion as much as a winner.
And yet, Son's future at Tottenham is as up in the air as ever. Not since a mini-saga in 2016, when he was offered the chance to return to Germany with Wolfsburg after a quiet debut season, has he been so heavily tipped to leave. One year remains on his contract and this is likely the last chance Spurs will have at selling him for a fee worth their while.
Son, more than any other Spurs player in the 21st century, has earned the right to decide his destiny. If he wants to end his Tottenham career in a blaze of glory and leave before the summer window shuts, then so be it. But if he isn't exactly itching to get away, he still has a significant part to play in helping new head coach Thomas Frank through a transitional period.
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Son has often been labelled a streaky and inconsistent player by his detractors, though that has hardly ever proved a fair assessment. He recorded eight successive seasons reaching double figures for goals in the Premier League, winning the Golden Boot in 2021-22 without scoring a penalty and also tallied double digits in assists in four other campaigns.
However, 2024-25 was the first since his initial 2015-16 season in which Son failed to get to 10 league goals, having to settle for seven in 30 games instead. In all competitions, he grabbed 11 in 46. At age 32, he was also unsuited to playing as a touchline winger as head coach Ange Postecoglou insisted, often found stranded on the touchline and failing to come infield to threaten given his flailing pace and explosiveness.
Son regularly features atop lists of players who have travelled the most miles for international duty and played the most minutes – he clocked over 3,000 at club level alone last season despite battling foot and hamstring injuries. At some point or another, his body was bound to feel the burn of those miles, and it's testament to his athleticism and work ethic that he's spent much of his career in top condition, playing 753 games for club and country to date. There's no shame in feeling the effects of Father Time.
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Even despite Spurs and Son's struggles in a season where they finished 17th and focused their efforts on a different competition, the team tallied the seventh-most goals in the Premier League and even managed to outscore fourth-placed Chelsea.
The attacking potential in the team is huge and has only been added to of late with the £55 million ($74m) acquisition of tricky forward Mohammed Kudus from West Ham, who set the pulses of optimists racing with his fine performance in Saturday's 2-0 win at Reading in a pre-season friendly. In his introductory press conference on Friday, Frank acknowledged the riches of talent at his disposal.
"I think the front three, four, depending on if we play with a 10 and a front three, with Dominic [Solanke] up there, I think Richarlison is a good striker, I know he's been struggling with injuries, I think he was having a strong end to the season and was very important for the team to win the Europa League trophy," he said. "Brennan [Johnson], [Dejan] Kulusevski, I know he's out for a little bit of a while but he's still there. [James] Maddison, [Wilson] Odobert, Mathys Tel and now Kudus. I think that's a strong, creative frontline and I'm 100 percent sure we will score a lot of goals."
Notably, Frank did not mention Son in his answer, and Tottenham are still being linked to a number of players who can play in the final third, not least Morgan Gibbs-White amid the club's legal battle with Nottingham Forest.
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So what has Frank said about Son, then? During an earlier part of that same press conference, the Dane was quizzed on transfer speculation relating to the 33-year-old and centre-back Cristian Romero, who was courted by Atletico Madrid this summer, but was insistent he is only looking at their short-term futures.
"Two top players," Frank said. "Sonny, been here 10 years, finally got his his well deserved trophy in the summer. So important for the team and the club. Cristian Romero, World Cup winner, Europa League winner, Copa America winner, very, very important for us as well. Both have trained well, setting the standards out there on the training pitch and both will play [against Reading] so I'm very happy.
"My expectation is all the players are here and they are training well. That is what I am focusing on and again very impressed by them. They set the standards and train hard. As I said, they are playing tomorrow, that's a good indicator that they are here."
Not only is Son's place in the team at risk, but so is his status as club captain. Frank added: "I haven't decided anything on [the captaincy]. I have a long list of bullet points I need to get through and I take them in the right order. He was the captain last year and when we play two 45s [at Reading], Son and Romero will be the two captains, but I haven't made a final decision." Frank also confirmed this decision would be his, and not left to a dressing room vote as is the case at other clubs.
AFPMust avoid Kane repeat
During Postecoglou's first summer in charge, he continually had to field questions about the uncertain future of Harry Kane, who too was entering the final year of his contract and was targeted by Bayern Munich. The Australian even had to contend with a German reporter presenting him with a 'Kane 9' Bayern shirt during their tour of Asia.
The England captain ended up signing for the Bavarian giants about 48 hours before Tottenham began their 2023-24 campaign, which meant losing their best player by far and significantly worsening their chances of winning silverware or qualifying for the Champions League. Frank was further asked if he would prefer to veer clear of such a drawn out saga with Son.
"Yeah. First and foremost, he's here now. I'm not worried too much about it," he Frank. "Let's take that five or six weeks down the line. That will probably be something I get [asked] the following week, so I'll practice my answers. Right now, he's here."
