Son Heung-min is expected to play for Tottenham Hotspur for another year.
British media Telegram reported on the 4th (Korea Standard Time) that Tottenham will be together for one more season by invoking a one-year extension clause in Son Heung-min’s contract.
The media said, “Tottenham and Son Heung-min, who re-signed in 2021, will expire in the summer of 2025, seven months later. The club has the right to extend it by one year. Tottenham just needs to inform Son Heung-min that they have activated this option, and the media understands that they are fully willing to do so.”
“Son Heung-min is approaching his 10th year as he came to Tottenham from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2015 for a transfer fee of 22 million pounds (about 39.5 billion won), and is considered one of the most successful transfer market performances for Tottenham in the modern era,” he reported.
When asked about the contract earlier this season in an interview with the BBC, Son claimed that he was only focused on ending Tottenham’s zero involvement, which has not existed since 2008.
Son Heung-min reached the UEFA Champions League and Carabao Cup finals at Tottenham respectively, but both lost and finished second.
Son said, “I am fully focused this year and I want to win something that both clubs deserve. This is why I work. I still have a very important contract with the club and I want to get something by the end of my contract.”
The media called Son a “favorite” of neutral fans and said, “Of course, there must be opposition from fans of the team who find him unfair. Sometimes he does funny diving, and Arsenal fans cannot feel the warm feeling. Probably that’s the atmosphere in North Korea,” adding, “However, Son Heung-min is a player who goes beyond hostility towards everyone except himself.”
“There is a concept that I like to play with a smile on my face, but it is applied disproportionately to non-white players, which is as surprising as it is. Nevertheless, the 19th-ranked player in the Premier League’s total score is the default setting, regardless of arrogance, but it is difficult not to be warm to such a player. Fans can smell insincere and Son Heung-min’s many actions never seem artificial,” he added.
The media praised Son Heung-min for expressing his guilt after Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were fired, paying a chef who cooked high-end Korean food for Tottenham’s training ground staff and publicly accepting an apology from Rodrigo Bentancourt, who said Koreans “look all the same.”
Reports of Son Heung-min’s contract extension have already been rumors since the beginning of this year.
At the time, Tom Barclay, a British “The Sun” and Tottenham reporter, also said on SNS, “Tottenham is reportedly planning to activate their one-year extension option to hand over Son Heung-min’s contract to the summer of 2026.”
The British ‘Guardian’ also said, “Son Heung-min looked back on the contract situation after entering the last 12 months of his current contract at Tottenham,” adding, “Tottenham reportedly has the option to extend Son’s contract period by one more year and plans to activate it.”
British media Sports Mall went even further last month, featuring Son Heung-min’s competitor.
“Tottenham has also started recruiting 26-year-old winger Harvey Poir,” the media said at the time. “Tottenham’s No. 1 priority is to secure the future of legendary Son Heung-min.” However, it is not a multi-year contract that fans want. Tottenham hopes to extend the contract period until June 2026. It means that it will implement the current contract option. It is no different from the Telegraph report.
Tottenham seems to continue to think about Son Heung-min’s future by extending the contract period by one more year instead of expiring the contract in 2025.
Son Heung-min is 34 years old by 2026. In particular, it is not easy for anyone to play at a high level until his mid-30s as a winger resource. Son Heung-min takes good care of himself, but recently, as the recovery time for a hamstring injury has been prolonged, it has been thoroughly managed.
Such management was also included in the 10th round of the 2024-2025 Premier League against Aston Villa at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on the 3rd.
Son Heung-min, who returned from injury after three matches, scored a 1-1 tie from Brennan Johnson with a sharp cross from the left in the fourth minute of the second half. He expected more performance after scoring his third assist in the league, but he was replaced by Hishalisson around the 10th minute of the second half.
When the replacement sign went in, Son Heung-min asked the bench if he was right, and when he was confirmed, he headed to the bench without hiding his regret. He was angry on the bench, but after the game, he accepted it without any problems by hugging coach Anji Postecoglou, who chose to replace him.
Tottenham feel Son Heung-min needs management now and are looking to judge his future in the next two years soon. A lot has been done at Tottenham, but now the time for a decision is coming.
Son Heung-min, who is in his 10th season at Tottenham, is one of the best strikers in the league who have become Premier League legends as well as Tottenham. Since joining Tottenham in the summer of 2015, he has recorded 165 goals and 90 assists in 417 matches at Tottenham, 123 goals and 65 assists in 310 matches at the Premier League.
In addition, Son became the seventh player to score double digits in the league for eight consecutive seasons in the league. He is on par with Wayne Rooney (11 seasons), Frank Lampard (10 seasons), Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane (nine seasons above), Thierry Henry and Sadio Mane (eight seasons above).
Furthermore, Son Heung-min has achieved 10 league goals and 10 assists three times in the Premier League, becoming a player who has set a league record of 10-10 more than three times with only five players.
Wayne Rooney had the most number of league matches with five, followed by Eric Cantona and Frank Lampard with four. The third was Mohamed Salah, who is currently playing for Liverpool, and Didier Drogba, a Chelsea legend striker. Joining the 10-10 club was a chance to give Son another Premier League title, “Living Legend,” and he finally made it.
In addition, Son was selected as the team’s first non-European captain last year, which marked the 141st anniversary of the club’s founding, and is leading the team. Son is a natural striker and winger, as well as a captain who demonstrates leadership and exerts great influence over Tottenham’s squad.
Son Heung-min’s regret is that there is no trophy despite his great performance.
“I don’t think this club (Tottenham) is a legend yet. I said I wanted to win the title at Tottenham, and I would be very happy to be called a legend of the team,” Son said. “I came to Tottenham to win the title. I am looking forward to this season.”
If Son does not win a title this season, his future will likely become unclear again. Tottenham, which has already rejected Saudi Arabia’s offer for several years, can also make a shocking choice in the transfer market if it wants to earn money from the transfer fee. 스포츠토토
According to various local reports, Son Heung-min was reportedly offered a four-year contract for an annual salary of 30 million euros (about 44.3 billion won) by RT Hard, one of the most prestigious teams in the Saudi professional league. Tottenham decided to give up the total salary of more than 160 billion won and stay at Tottenham, but Tottenham’s response was cold.
Due to the recent nature of modern soccer, which does not usually hold on to veterans who are entering their mid-30s, it is common for Tottenham to renew their one-year contracts even if they renew their contracts. Veteran players such as Hugo Lloris, Toby Alderweireld, and Jan Vertonghen also sold them as they entered the mid-30s, even if they can make good use of them until they reach their early 30s. There is no guarantee that Son will take a different path.
There have been reports that Tottenham is preparing to renew the contract, but it is one of the factors that will not lead to a long-term contract. It remains to be seen how much more Tottenham will maintain investment in the winger, who needs to adjust his playing time as he approaches his mid-30s.
In addition, Tottenham is trying to extend the contract period to leave the option of selling Son Heung-min to Saudi Arabia and other places without a new contract, making the club profitable as much as possible. Saudi clubs offered around 80 billion won in transfer fees for Son Heung-min last summer. If this plan works, Tottenham will use Son Heung-min, who was brought in at 40 billion won a decade ago, to make hundreds of billions of commercial profits and realize profits that are double the amount of transfer fees spent.
