SINGAPORE – As a young boy, Son Heung-min would practise basic football drills six hours every day with his brother Heung-yun under the watchful eye of their father, former football pro Son Woong-jung.
The Tottenham forward told The Straits Times he was not allowed to have a favourite drill, explaining: “My dad saw what I needed, which was the hardest part for me as this is what I didn’t want. But there was no option not to train with this because I knew this was my weakness.
“There is no point to do only your favourite exercise or drills. Sometimes you need to train harder on your weak points.”
And so, he remembered the four-hour keepy-uppy sessions when he was a 10-year-old growing up in Chuncheon, which is 75km from Seoul, shooting 500 times each with his left and right foot as a teenager, and picking five points on the pitch where he would pivot and shoot from religiously.
He did not complain, because his father would remind Son he was the one who wanted to play.
Besides increasing his technical prowess, such discipline also honed Son’s mental strength as he demonstrated his ability to withstand the pressures of playing at the highest level and blossomed to become the face of Asian football.
But it was not a bed of roses. The continuous juggling left him with bloodshot eyes and blurred vision, and he could not put in words how tough it was when he left South Korea to join Hamburger SV’s youth academy at 16.
Son told ST: “It was just so hard. I moved to Germany and couldn’t speak English or German. But I would still do the same because I love to play football in Europe.”
With a shy laugh, he quipped: “I first learnt English when I was 23 and my English not great. So, the one thing I want to share is you should learn English at a young age… I think it’s important for playing football (in Europe).”
Son eventually rose through the ranks to become a key player for Hamburger and later Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, before becoming the most expensive Asian when he joined Tottenham for £22 million (S$40.7 million) in 2015.
After an average first season when he scored just eight times in 40 games, he has been irrepressible since, averaging almost 20 goals a season.
Still, there have been obstacles to overcome at Spurs where he has already had to work with three different managers.
Amazon documentary All Or Nothing revealed a bust-up between goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and Son during their 1-0 win over Everton in July 2020, while the London side suffered a torrid September when they lost all three league games under new boss Nuno Espirito Santo.
Yet, each time, Son and his team seem to be able to emerge stronger. With a subtle change from a 4-3-1-2 formation to 4-2-3-1, back-to-back wins in October have lifted them to fifth, four points behind leaders Chelsea in the English Premier League after eight matches.
Again crediting family support, the 29-year-old said: “Sometimes it is so hard when you lose a game. Just to remember the game is just so painful.
“And the next day we need to prepare for another game in three days’ time, so mentally we need to be so strong. For me, when I go home, I speak with my father and my brother a lot about the games. This makes me feel better and more comfortable for the next game.”
Son was speaking to Singapore media as part of an AIA Live in Singapore 2021 event on Thursday (Oct 21), where fans were invited to join him and his teammates Ben Davies, Joe Rodon and Oliver Skipp for a session on how to live healthier, longer, better lives together in fun and unexpected ways.
Left-back Davies revealed his team have appreciated spending time together after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, and encouraged those who are still stuck at home during the pandemic “to try and get some exercise in every day… for your mind as well as your body”.
Ahead of Sunday’s Premier League showdown at West Ham, Son also shared how there is always an extra edge to such London derbies.
He said: “We don’t want to disappoint ourselves and our fans and we don’t want to disappoint our fans. We need to be mentally so strong to get us three points away from home.
“I think we showed the best example of this last weekend (against Newcastle). Some teams give up when they are 1-0 down but we showed really good character and after 20 minutes, we are 2-1 up. Even when we are 1-0 down, you could see we were enjoying football with the ball and without the ball.”
Son backed his team to kick on from here as they buy into Santo’s philosophy.
“The most important thing for him is that togetherness,” he said. “Even we are attacking together from the ‘keeper, and we are defending together from the striker. That is how he wants it to be and how I feel is really important as a team.”