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In one of the best moments of the Fifa 2022 World Cup, a Portugal corner kick, in the first minute of stoppage time, is cleared by the Korean defense into a patch of free grass. Son Heung-min, being an exceptional player, had anticipated the clearance and is already on the run. He’s so fast, that only a few seconds later, he has the ball at his feet just outside the penalty box. But the problem for Son is that not one, but three Portugal players have already caught up with him, have covered the possibility of Son cutting inside the box or even shooting, and it seems that they closed the gap entirely. So in a moment of genius, Son looks up to see his teammate tearing into the box, passes him the ball between Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot’s legs, and the inch perfect assist makes it very easy for Wolverhampton forward, Hwang Hee-chan to score the winning goal, to take Korea into the knockouts, when only seconds earlier, they were on the brink of elimination.
Son’s moment of magic, coming from one of one of Asia's greatest ever players, was anything but new. In only the version before, in the 2018 World Cup, he not only scored a dramatic last minute goal vs Germany, when crazy goalkeeper Manuel Neuer had completely left his goal and was playing midfield. But that goal ensured that the defending champions Germany were knocked out of the World Cup in the group stages by South Korea. So, on a country level, he’s just incredible. And on a club level, Son has achieved remarkable success in the most competitive league in the world. I mean who would’ve thought that a humble South Korean can go neck and neck with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Sadio Mane, and Raheem Sterling, to eventually win the 2021-2022 Premier League Golden Boot, jointly with Mo Salah.
But although considered one of the best players in the world and widely regarded as the greatest Asian footballer of all time, it hasn’t always been easy for Sonny. On the one hand, he has won a very good number of individual titles and records, both at country and club level. Yet just like his former teammate Harry Kane, and at 31 years old, Son HAS NEVER won a single trophy in his career. His ex-teammate Harry Kane is en route to change that, after leaving Tottenham and joining Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. But with Son, he remains to be stuck at trophy-less Spurs. Because even when Tottenham surprised the whole world and reached the 2019 Champions League final, at the end, it was heartbreak when they lost 2-0 to Liverpool.
The following season, Son was involved in one of the most awful scenes that you can see in football, when he made a tackle against Everton midfielder Andre Gomes, that resulted in a fractured dislocation of his ankle. It was clear he didn’t do it on purpose and meant no harm for Gomes, but the scene was terrible that Son himself couldn’t hold back the tears. The tackle is similar to any other tackle you would see in a football game, but Son’s bad luck got him involved in maybe the worst incident of his career.
So with the 2023 AFC Asian Cup just around the corner, and with a pretty decent South Korean football team, can Son finally end the bad luck and end his trophy-less career? He already won the 2018 Asian Games gold medal with Korea, and got a degree for his service in the Korean army. So will this be the time he finally gets to lift a trophy and cement his status as the greatest Asian footballer of all time?