-
Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara
Son Heung-Min
- Thread starter Denmark Spur
- Start date
JerusalemMan
Chris Perry
The note Sonny left in the hotel rooms of his teammates upon arrival in Korea. Looks like he may have got them presents too.
Glenda's Legs
Paul Walsh
Such a lovely, lovely person.
He is obviously so proud to have his team mates in his country.
I will be so sad if /when the day comes where he leaves Spurs.
NickTB
Kasey Keller
love how talks about the club. Seems to be a real love there
Even his father did. Saying spurs is a family club and wants son to retire with us.
FatBloke
Niko Kranjcar
The guy's a class act.
Is nos7.com his own apparel brand? Doesn't have much about him on the website, but NOS being SON backwards and 7 being his shirt number seems too much of a coincidence.
Glenda's Legs
Paul Walsh
So what's the www.nos7.com at the bottom of the message - a sponsor for Son? Doesn't seem much on the website - a few t-shirts, shorts, slippers and odds and sods.
edit :just seen @FatBloke asked much the same thing.
edit :just seen @FatBloke asked much the same thing.
The company that delivered the gifts, with notes attached from sonny? He probably ordered them slippers etc... for their stay in korea.
Good luck to him.
metalgear
Luka Modric
Levy should have a double statue of Kane and Son for the records they've broken already. And get a Korean corporate sponsor to fund it too.
Sent from my SM-S908E using Fapatalk
What records they broken? If it's premier league records no.
metalgear
Luka Modric
https://www.premierleague.com/news/2494142
https://talksport.com/football/1068...ng-min-son-history-tottenham-arsenal-chelsea/
Sent from my SM-T865 using Fapatalk
That's a premier league record. Which to me is meaningless. Football didn't start with the premier league.
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
Agree it's really annoying the way Sky try to insinuate that football began in 1992.
But let's be fair, the game has changed somewhat over the decades. Been going to WHL since 1953 and would argue that the level of skills, fitness and intensity nowadays would make the old First Division look more like today's League 2.
Ofcourse it's improved as have most sports, technique, technology, training, nutrition, sports science etc... but it doesn't make pre premier league meaningless.
Look at climbing. The first person to ever climb a 9a rated route was in 1991. In 2014 a 14 year old italian girl climbed 9a. Since 1991 the most difficult route increased to 9a+, then 9b, then 9b+, then 2017 adam ondra became the only person to climb 9c (still is). That doesn't mean the likes of chris sharma, warren harding or jim bridwell weren't fantastic or even better climbers for their time. Just means we progress. Usain bolts world records will fall.
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
No, like I said I basically agree. But I can also see, albeit grudgingly, why 30 years down the line it's quite useful to use 1992 as a significant turning point in football history, same as WW2 is often used as a convenient marker for the modern era in general. Yes it's bloody annoying the way Sky have managed to hi-jack football history but that still does not alter the fact that the arrival of the PL both coincided with and played its part in changing the football lansdscape.
Last edited:
FatBloke
Niko Kranjcar
Good article about Sonny's academy in The Athletic. I've said it before, but his dad's quite something. 60 and looks as fit as a butcher's dog. "He just had no talent" being his assessment of Sonny's brother (who played in the German 5th tier).
https://theathletic.com/3422838/2022/07/15/son-heung-min-academy/
Inside Son Heung-min’s £11 million academy, where shooting is banned for under-15s
Charlie Eccleshare
“I’m not proud, I’m more cautious.”
Son Woong-jung, the father of Tottenham Hotspur forward Heung-min, is explaining how it feels to see his child win the Premier League Golden Boot and explode into one of the world’s most exciting footballers.
“Because I don’t want it to go to his head,” Son senior adds. “I don’t want him to become too overconfident or roostery. I want him to be humble because nothing lasts for ever — there’s always a chance he could drop in form.
“Take a farmer: he may have a good harvest but he should not be too happy about it. And if he has a bad harvest he shouldn’t be too down about it. Because there’s always the next year, so that’s the mentality I have. With titles like the Golden Boot, yes, it’s a great accomplishment but I want to make sure he doesn’t falter in form and keeps that consistency.”
Woong-jung is speaking to The Athletic at the Son Football Academy in Chuncheon, the city in which Heung-min grew up, just over 100 kilometres north east of Seoul. Where the Spurs striker, along with his brother Heung-yun, was coached with laser-like focus and strictness by their father. Where the Son boys would have to keep the ball up for four hours on end, and take part in drills with hundreds of repetitions and have to start again if they faltered, and not allowed to join a team until they were in their mid-teens so that they could nail the basics first.
To understand how Son Heung-min has made it to this level, you have to understand the man who still lives with him in north London and who coached him with such merciless precision during his formative years. His willingness to go again, the determination for constant improvement, the two-footedness — it was all honed in Chuncheon.
On the latter skill, which has seen his son become the most two-footed goalscorer in Premier League history, Woong-jung explains: “Usually when students or footballers are starting, they tend to have a preferred foot — and the ratio is 3:1. Three for the stronger foot and one for the weaker foot. Here when they start training, if you’re right footed you always touch the ball with your left foot first — so you develop that other foot. And, eventually, you get to a level of two-footedness.
“In Heung-min’s case I knew he was right footed but I made sure that socks, cleats (football boots), shoes, trousers, watch or anything like that, he put on his left side first so he never forgot about the two-footedness.”
Son Heung-min’s father Son Woong-jung, at their academy in Chuncheon, South Korea
In jointly winning the Premier League’s Golden Boot last season, Son scored more with his supposedly weaker left (12) than his right (11).
“Whenever he does shooting practice, I make sure that he does hundreds and hundreds of shots — especially when he was young,” his father continues. “But if the left one was falling behind a bit I’d make sure that he was even and they were at the same level before he was done for the day.”
Son’s father is 60 years old and stands at just under 5ft 5in (167cm). The black sports vest he wears during training emphasises his impeccable physical condition — a product of a daily two-hour gym routine and, when he’s in Chuncheon, about the same amount of time spent on the pitch conducting extremely hands-on coaching sessions.
At the Son academy, he wants to give the 35 or so students the best possible chance of one day emulating their hero. As was the case with his two boys, Woong-jung is relentless in the demands he places on these youngsters — and puts the same emphasis on drills, while still refusing to let his charges play for clubs until they reach 15 or 16 years of age.
Watching him on the training pitch is fascinating.
He barks orders, often including expletives, at the players (most of whom are 12 years old), plays a completely active role in the drills and then a small-sided game; early on in the session, he says one of the boys should go home because he’s not sufficiently focused.
The academy itself is hugely impressive, built at a cost of just under £11million — pretty much all paid for by the Spurs and South Korea star.
There is a clubhouse, classrooms for the children, and about half a dozen pitches, including one full-size one. They hope to soon build a coffee shop and a car park for visitors, while a Son Heung-min museum is in the planning stages.
The academy started a decade ago but, as Son’s profile has risen as he has become more of a name in European football, it has increasingly expanded — first, thanks to a number of big sponsors in 2015 and then accelerating as he has been able to invest more and more in it. Usually in South Korea, these sort of enterprises are partially or fully taxpayer-funded, but this has all been built through private money.
The 35 boys (plus three more who have followed Son’s own path as a youngster and been signed by German clubs) enrolled in the academy are carefully chosen. They come from all over the country, and must meet the high physical and mental standards set by Woong-jung, who despite living in London for most of the year is the director of the academy and very hands-on when he’s there.
In his absence, Son’s brother Heung-yun is head coach and looks after things, and is a much more genial presence than their father.
Heung-yun, a 33-year-old who played professionally in Korea and in the German fifth tier, laughs when asked if he’s as strict as their father. “I want to be in the middle — the coach with two faces,” he says. “If I need to be strict, I’ll be strict. If I need to be gentle, I’ll be gentle.”
Son Woong-jung is known for being a hard taskmaster (Photo: Getty)
The aim for these youngsters is for them to one day have a professional career like the Son brothers, and indeed their dad, who had to retire aged 28 because of an achilles injury having got as far as the Korea B team.
Two of the academy’s recent graduates are at Paderborn (Choi In-woo, 19, and 20-year-old fellow midfielder Ryu Dong-wan), with another also in Germany at St Pauli but currently back at the academy recuperating. The Sons have good relationships with German clubs, dating back to Son’s time with Hamburg as a teenager and then Bayer Leverkusen before joining Spurs in the summer of 2015.
Finding clubs for the players is the aim once they turn 15, but children start at the academy aged as young as seven. Supplementary education is available but the youngsters generally go through the state system separately, alongside classes like specialist language ones at the academy to try to prepare them for a career, hopefully, playing in Europe.
As has been the case for Son, who said of his dad in 2019: “My father was thinking of what I needed all the time. He has done everything for me and without him, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today.”
And so, with Son now a global superstar and currently in the country along with his Tottenham team-mates, this feels like an opportune moment to speak to his family members and understand how he evolved as a footballer and how his family are trying to foster a new generation of South Korean footballers.
And separately why dad Woong-jung, in whom his son can see some similarities with Spurs head coach Antonio Conte, is doubling down on his recent claim that his son is not world-class.
Chuncheon is a couple of hours drive from Seoul depending on traffic, and is much more rural than the Korean capital. It is the capital of the Gangwon province, though, which also includes Pyeongchang, where the 2018 Winter Olympics took place. There is an urban area with big skyscrapers but they look a long way in the distance from the academy, which is surrounded with forestry and has mountains behind it.
The drive in takes you past posters and a mural of local hero Son, and his image is front and centre of its entrance.
As we enter, a group of youngsters exit a classroom where they’ve been having an English lesson, and we sit down to hear from Woong-jung before seeing a training session in action.
Woong-jung is a big celebrity in his own right in Korea, helped in large part by the fame and success of his son in the Premier League. He has a distinctive appearance and last October released a book on the principles of his teachings titled Everything Starts With The Fundamentals. But he rarely gives interviews — an exception being the one in June where he stated that he doesn’t think Son is world-class.
His passion is in trying to create the right conditions for aspiring footballers to prosper.
“When I was training my sons at a very young age, one of the most difficult things here is that the climate is not very suitable, because it is very cold during winter,” he says. “During summer it’s very hot and humid, and there aren’t many elite-level grounds they could provide if they had someone to take to the next level of football. Whether that’s the national level here, or the pro level here, or even Europe.
“And that’s one of the regrets I had and one of the reasons I accompanied Heung-min to Germany so he could have that kind of environment.
“So I wanted to provide that kind of environment for younger kids here. And I was able to do this because of the income of Heung-min — to give a chance to anyone aspiring to be at that level of footballer.”
The Son Academy earlier in its development, in 2018 (Photo: Getty)
(continued...)
https://theathletic.com/3422838/2022/07/15/son-heung-min-academy/
Inside Son Heung-min’s £11 million academy, where shooting is banned for under-15s
Charlie Eccleshare
“I’m not proud, I’m more cautious.”
Son Woong-jung, the father of Tottenham Hotspur forward Heung-min, is explaining how it feels to see his child win the Premier League Golden Boot and explode into one of the world’s most exciting footballers.
“Because I don’t want it to go to his head,” Son senior adds. “I don’t want him to become too overconfident or roostery. I want him to be humble because nothing lasts for ever — there’s always a chance he could drop in form.
“Take a farmer: he may have a good harvest but he should not be too happy about it. And if he has a bad harvest he shouldn’t be too down about it. Because there’s always the next year, so that’s the mentality I have. With titles like the Golden Boot, yes, it’s a great accomplishment but I want to make sure he doesn’t falter in form and keeps that consistency.”
Woong-jung is speaking to The Athletic at the Son Football Academy in Chuncheon, the city in which Heung-min grew up, just over 100 kilometres north east of Seoul. Where the Spurs striker, along with his brother Heung-yun, was coached with laser-like focus and strictness by their father. Where the Son boys would have to keep the ball up for four hours on end, and take part in drills with hundreds of repetitions and have to start again if they faltered, and not allowed to join a team until they were in their mid-teens so that they could nail the basics first.
To understand how Son Heung-min has made it to this level, you have to understand the man who still lives with him in north London and who coached him with such merciless precision during his formative years. His willingness to go again, the determination for constant improvement, the two-footedness — it was all honed in Chuncheon.
On the latter skill, which has seen his son become the most two-footed goalscorer in Premier League history, Woong-jung explains: “Usually when students or footballers are starting, they tend to have a preferred foot — and the ratio is 3:1. Three for the stronger foot and one for the weaker foot. Here when they start training, if you’re right footed you always touch the ball with your left foot first — so you develop that other foot. And, eventually, you get to a level of two-footedness.
“In Heung-min’s case I knew he was right footed but I made sure that socks, cleats (football boots), shoes, trousers, watch or anything like that, he put on his left side first so he never forgot about the two-footedness.”
Son Heung-min’s father Son Woong-jung, at their academy in Chuncheon, South Korea
In jointly winning the Premier League’s Golden Boot last season, Son scored more with his supposedly weaker left (12) than his right (11).
“Whenever he does shooting practice, I make sure that he does hundreds and hundreds of shots — especially when he was young,” his father continues. “But if the left one was falling behind a bit I’d make sure that he was even and they were at the same level before he was done for the day.”
Son’s father is 60 years old and stands at just under 5ft 5in (167cm). The black sports vest he wears during training emphasises his impeccable physical condition — a product of a daily two-hour gym routine and, when he’s in Chuncheon, about the same amount of time spent on the pitch conducting extremely hands-on coaching sessions.
At the Son academy, he wants to give the 35 or so students the best possible chance of one day emulating their hero. As was the case with his two boys, Woong-jung is relentless in the demands he places on these youngsters — and puts the same emphasis on drills, while still refusing to let his charges play for clubs until they reach 15 or 16 years of age.
Watching him on the training pitch is fascinating.
He barks orders, often including expletives, at the players (most of whom are 12 years old), plays a completely active role in the drills and then a small-sided game; early on in the session, he says one of the boys should go home because he’s not sufficiently focused.
The academy itself is hugely impressive, built at a cost of just under £11million — pretty much all paid for by the Spurs and South Korea star.
There is a clubhouse, classrooms for the children, and about half a dozen pitches, including one full-size one. They hope to soon build a coffee shop and a car park for visitors, while a Son Heung-min museum is in the planning stages.
The academy started a decade ago but, as Son’s profile has risen as he has become more of a name in European football, it has increasingly expanded — first, thanks to a number of big sponsors in 2015 and then accelerating as he has been able to invest more and more in it. Usually in South Korea, these sort of enterprises are partially or fully taxpayer-funded, but this has all been built through private money.
The 35 boys (plus three more who have followed Son’s own path as a youngster and been signed by German clubs) enrolled in the academy are carefully chosen. They come from all over the country, and must meet the high physical and mental standards set by Woong-jung, who despite living in London for most of the year is the director of the academy and very hands-on when he’s there.
In his absence, Son’s brother Heung-yun is head coach and looks after things, and is a much more genial presence than their father.
Heung-yun, a 33-year-old who played professionally in Korea and in the German fifth tier, laughs when asked if he’s as strict as their father. “I want to be in the middle — the coach with two faces,” he says. “If I need to be strict, I’ll be strict. If I need to be gentle, I’ll be gentle.”
Son Woong-jung is known for being a hard taskmaster (Photo: Getty)
The aim for these youngsters is for them to one day have a professional career like the Son brothers, and indeed their dad, who had to retire aged 28 because of an achilles injury having got as far as the Korea B team.
Two of the academy’s recent graduates are at Paderborn (Choi In-woo, 19, and 20-year-old fellow midfielder Ryu Dong-wan), with another also in Germany at St Pauli but currently back at the academy recuperating. The Sons have good relationships with German clubs, dating back to Son’s time with Hamburg as a teenager and then Bayer Leverkusen before joining Spurs in the summer of 2015.
Finding clubs for the players is the aim once they turn 15, but children start at the academy aged as young as seven. Supplementary education is available but the youngsters generally go through the state system separately, alongside classes like specialist language ones at the academy to try to prepare them for a career, hopefully, playing in Europe.
As has been the case for Son, who said of his dad in 2019: “My father was thinking of what I needed all the time. He has done everything for me and without him, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today.”
And so, with Son now a global superstar and currently in the country along with his Tottenham team-mates, this feels like an opportune moment to speak to his family members and understand how he evolved as a footballer and how his family are trying to foster a new generation of South Korean footballers.
And separately why dad Woong-jung, in whom his son can see some similarities with Spurs head coach Antonio Conte, is doubling down on his recent claim that his son is not world-class.
Chuncheon is a couple of hours drive from Seoul depending on traffic, and is much more rural than the Korean capital. It is the capital of the Gangwon province, though, which also includes Pyeongchang, where the 2018 Winter Olympics took place. There is an urban area with big skyscrapers but they look a long way in the distance from the academy, which is surrounded with forestry and has mountains behind it.
The drive in takes you past posters and a mural of local hero Son, and his image is front and centre of its entrance.
As we enter, a group of youngsters exit a classroom where they’ve been having an English lesson, and we sit down to hear from Woong-jung before seeing a training session in action.
Woong-jung is a big celebrity in his own right in Korea, helped in large part by the fame and success of his son in the Premier League. He has a distinctive appearance and last October released a book on the principles of his teachings titled Everything Starts With The Fundamentals. But he rarely gives interviews — an exception being the one in June where he stated that he doesn’t think Son is world-class.
His passion is in trying to create the right conditions for aspiring footballers to prosper.
“When I was training my sons at a very young age, one of the most difficult things here is that the climate is not very suitable, because it is very cold during winter,” he says. “During summer it’s very hot and humid, and there aren’t many elite-level grounds they could provide if they had someone to take to the next level of football. Whether that’s the national level here, or the pro level here, or even Europe.
“And that’s one of the regrets I had and one of the reasons I accompanied Heung-min to Germany so he could have that kind of environment.
“So I wanted to provide that kind of environment for younger kids here. And I was able to do this because of the income of Heung-min — to give a chance to anyone aspiring to be at that level of footballer.”
The Son Academy earlier in its development, in 2018 (Photo: Getty)
(continued...)