Heung-Min Son

Son Heung-min is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC and captains the South Korea National Team. He is widely regarded as the greatest Asian player of all time and is the highest-scoring Asian player in the history of both the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League.

Player Profile and Personal Life

Son Heung-min was born on July 8, 1992, in Chuncheon, South Korea. The forward stands 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) tall. In 2018, he established the Son Football Academy in his hometown, investing £11 million to develop the next generation of talent.

During the suspension of football in 2020 due to the pandemic, he completed his mandatory military service with the Republic of Korea Marine Corps in Jeju, finishing in the top five of his training cohort.

He is a massive cultural icon in his home country, consistently ranking near the top of the Forbes Korea Power Celebrity 40 list. In June 2022, he was awarded the Cheongnyong Medal, the highest sports merit honor in South Korea. In 2025, he threw the ceremonial first pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is also the godfather to the children of his former teammate, Ben Davies.

Career

Son relocated to Germany as a teenager to join Hamburger SV, making his Bundesliga debut in 2010.

After a record-breaking transfer to Bayer Leverkusen in 2013, he moved to England to join Tottenham Hotspur in 2015. Over a decade in North London, he evolved into one of the world's elite forwards. His individual brilliance was highlighted in the 2019–20 season when he won the FIFA Puskás Award for a spectacular solo goal.

He made history in the 2021–22 campaign by becoming the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot, netting 23 goals. Appointed club Captain in 2023, he led Tottenham to the UEFA Europa League title in 2025, ending the club's 17-year wait for a major trophy in his final season before moving to the United States to join Los Angeles FC.

On the international stage, Son has been a talismanic figure for South Korea since 2010. He has represented his nation at three FIFA World Cups (2014, 2018, 2022) and is the country's joint-top scorer in the tournament's history. He also captained the U23 team to a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games and has participated in four editions of the AFC Asian Cup, finishing as a runner-up in 2015.

Team Honors

• 2018 - Asian Games Gold Medal, South Korea U23
• 2015 - AFC Asian Cup runner-up, South Korea
• 2018–2019 - UEFA Champions League runner-up, Tottenham Hotspur
• 2020–2021 - EFL Cup runner-up, Tottenham Hotspur
• 2024–2025 - UEFA Europa League, Tottenham Hotspur

Individual Honors

• 2015 - AFC Asian International Player of the Year
• 2020 - FIFA Puskás Award
• 2020–2021 - PFA Premier League Team of the Year
• 2021–2022 - Premier League Golden Boot
• 2022 - Cheongnyong Medal
• 2024 - FourFourTwo Best Asian Footballer of All Time
• 2025 - Best Footballer in Asia
• 2025 - MLS Goal of the Year