PROUD MOMENT FOR HEUNG-MIN SON
New signing Heung-Min Son has declared himself “pleased and honoured” after joining us from Bayer Leverkusen.
The 23-year-old South Korea international has impressed in the German Bundesliga with both Leverkusen and Hamburg over the last five seasons, regularly scoring goals for club and country.
Having hit the target for South Korea in their match with Nabil Bentaleb’s Algeria at the 2014 World Cup finals, he registered 17 goals in all competitions at club level last season.
And it’s that sort of form that he hopes to bring to White Hart Lane, with the promising forward excited by the challenges that lie ahead.
“Spurs is such a big club and a really good team,” said the amiable striker, who speaks English to a good standard but opted to give his first interview in Korean in order to fully express his joy at signing for us.
“My goal has always been to play in the Premier League and I have a great opportunity to do that now with Tottenham – I am really happy about this.
“I am also very pleased and honoured to work together with good players such as Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and all the players at Spurs. I’d like to help them perform and, together with them, make our team even more successful.”
Born in Chuncheon, the capital of Gangwon Province in South Korea, Heung-min – nicknamed ‘Sonny’ – moved to Germany and joined Hamburg’s youth set-up at the age of 16. In 2010, he followed in his father’s footsteps by stepping out on the international stage – and he confirms his family had a big influence on his chosen career path.
“I am a player who really loves football. I learned the game under my father, who worked as a football coach in my school,” he explained. “I’ve loved the game since I was a child and formally started to play when I was 10 years old.
“I told my father that I really wanted to become a professional footballer and, because football is in my blood, I’ve always trained hard with the dream to one day play in Europe and the Premier League.
“I’ve tried hard to learn many things throughout my career so far, I’ve played many games already and gathered a lot of experience for my age. That makes me play better and score goals.”
Having joined Bayer Leverkusen in June, 2013, Heung-min helped them to Champions League qualification in successive seasons and scored 29 goals in 87 appearances during his two years at BayArena.
He has now become the second South Korean player to represent Spurs after Young-Pyo Lee, who played for us between 2005 and 2008, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to run out at our world-famous stadium.
“I’m very excited to play at White Hart Lane,” he added. “I haven’t played at the stadium before but I’m looking forward to going there and performing for the Spurs fans as soon as possible. The support I get from the fans motivates me more and more.
“In the Premier League there are a lot of good players so I have to really work hard and be prepared to show my ability. 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.”
Source: tottenhamhotspur.com
