Heung-min Son is going out bad and sad at Tottenham; even Harry Kane knew to jump ship

Heung-min Son is a superstar. He is the Tottenham Hotspur captain. He is one of the most famous South Koreans in the world. At his absolute best, he was a world-class footballer. He was unstoppable. Yet, he has nothing to show for his football career besides some individual accolades. So much focus has been on Harry Kane that people seem to forget that Son has won diddly squat in his career.

After breaking through at Hamburg and establishing himself at Bayer Leverkusen, Son signed for Spurs in August 2015 for around £22million. It was thanks to a failed pursuit of West Brom’s 22-year-old striker Saido Berahino that Mauricio Pochettino bought Son, which is absolutely mental to look back on. Imagine what Spurs would have turned out like had they signed Berahino instead? Trophy-wise, it could not have gone any worse.

Some footballers seem untouchable and can not have a bad word spoken about them – Son is one of those players. We don’t want this to come across as criticism of him as a player or person, but more of Spurs for failing him and many others.

Sure, there could be some blame pointed towards Son over his decision not to move elsewhere for a trophy or two but there has always been a belief within him – we’re sure – that he could be the star who ends the club’s trophy drought. Kane reached the end of his tether and realised his talents were being wasted, so joined Bayern Munich in the 2023 summer transfer window.

It looks like that window of opportunity has been and gone for the South Korean. He will be 33 at the start of next season, the same as Mohamed Salah. The narrative around them could not be more different at this moment. Salah joined Liverpool on the back of a fourth-place finish and League Cup semi-final, two years on from Son joining a team that finished fifth in the Premier League and recently lost a League Cup final. The difference between 2015 Spurs and 2017 Liverpool is hardly astronomical, yet their fortunes since have been.

Ironically, a large portion of both fan bases want their owners out, yet one has helped bring trophy after trophy, while the other has given them a beautiful new stadium capable of hosting NFL and Taylor Swift, but no silverware.

Pochettino’s Tottenham should have won something, but that is easy to say on reflection… let’s not act like the trophy-winning teams were rubbish, overachieved and/or unjustly beat Spurs to a trophy – the same way people forget about those Brazil, Italy, France and Germany teams when saying England’s ‘Golden Generation’ should have won something.

Unfortunately for Son, he is only a Champions League and League Cup runner-up with Spurs and it looks like those two occasions will be the closest he gets to a winners’ medal, excluding the 2018 Asian Games success with South Korea’s Under-23s, which he won when he was 26 years old.

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As touched on, during those times with Kane, Mousa Dembele, Christian Eriksen, Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen and Dele at their peak, Son surely believed Spurs would win something, anything, so you can hardly judge him for loyalty, which is something unbeknown to modern footballers.

They were fun times and Son benefitted from Spurs and Spurs benefitted from Son. The player has boosted the club’s global brand and made them silly money off the pitch and with his performances on it. He helped earn Champions League qualification and the tournament money that followed, as well as second place in the league, while you can see countless South Korean fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium every matchday, travelling from the other side of the world to see their hero.

It has been a beneficial relationship and Spurs have undoubtedly helped Son blossom into a world beater, but there will be some regret looking back on his career. There has to be. It would be an incredible waste should a player of Son’s calibre retire without a single pot or pan to show for it.

The opportunity to do a Kane and become the star player at a Euro giant is unlikely to come now. It is evident that Son is past his best and if he wants to trophy hunt in his final years, he can do so, but it will likely require a wage cut if a Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona or Paris Saint-Germain are to take him on.

It is a similar situation to Cristiano Ronaldo’s after he left Manchester United for the second time. Nobody wanted the baggage – which Son absolutely does not have – and his huge salary demands – which Son is well within his rights to ask for.

The comparisons to Ronaldo do not end there. Son, without the moaning, moping and lack of energy, is now awfully similar to the limited CR7 we have seen since he turned 37. There is no doubt that Son has taken care of himself and that Ronaldo is a freak of nature, but the Spurs captain has become very limited on the pitch.

Like Ronaldo, he has edged closer and closer from the left wing to being an out-and-out striker or poacher, if you will. He is struggling to impact matches and seems to only be able to do so by scoring, which he has only done three times in 2025, including a Europa League brace v Hoffenheim.

He has been one of the rare Spurs players capable of staying fit over the last few months but has been unable to carry his players through what has become his most miserable season in England.

Son looks past it and miserable on the pitch – he is going out sad and doing so will make winning sod all even more painful.

There is sympathy for his form over the last 14 months given Spurs’ notable issues and even more sympathy when viewing him as a victim of the club’s malaise.

His peak years have been wasted, which even Kane eventually realised was a bad idea. It’s a shame it’s too late for Son.

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