3 days ago
Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min: Sometimes nice guys do finish first
Son Heung-min pictured during the Tottenham Hotspur trophy parade shortly after they won the Europa League.
Image: BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP
During one of the episodes of the fly-on-the-wall documentary All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, then-Spurs manager José Mourinho was seen having a half-time rant about his players being 'too nice.'
As this is a family platform, I can't really repeat the whole monologue, but he basically said that the Spurs players needed to be 'bastards' on the field.
Many people in and outside of the Spurs fanbase believe this is why the club never got over the line in a plethora of cup finals over the last decade, including the 2019 Champions League final against Liverpool. The club also became a footnote in Leicester City's 5000/1 Premier League title win, eventually finishing third in a two-horse race.
As the saying goes, 'nice guys finish last' — and Tottenham were just the personification of this.
When it comes to nice guys, nobody was nicer than their Korean superstar Son Heung-min, who is one footballer universally liked for his wonderful footballing ability and wholesome demeanour.
But he was part of that group of Spurs players who couldn't get the job done when it mattered. Besides star winger Son, that group featured some of the world's best players, including striker Harry Kane and World Cup-winning French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
Both Kane and Lloris left in the same season, leaving Son behind as the last of the Spurs underachievers.
Over the last few years, Son received various offers to leave for big, established Champions League clubs. But he decided to stay at Spurs and was eventually handed the captaincy in Ange Postecoglou's first season in charge of the team.
A lot of people questioned Son's ambitions, saying he had 'retired from winning trophies' by staying at a club where he had not won a single piece of silverware since joining in 2015.
Last year, Son entered his second season under Postecoglou looking like a player in decline. Over the years, he had been one of the Premier League's most feared attackers, combining blistering pace with clinical finishing.
But last season, it looked like he had lost a yard of pace, while his radar was off when attempting some of his trademark curling efforts from the left side.
His form also seemed to mirror that of his team, who — through a horrendous injury crisis — had slipped into the bottom half of the Premier League table. But, bizarrely, they had a surreal Europa League campaign going, in which they fought tooth and nail to stay in the competition.
By some miracle, Spurs managed to make it to the final against Manchester United in Bilbao. After almost 10 years at the club, and many failed attempts at a trophy, Son had another chance to win something with his beloved club.
With his contract soon coming to an end, many believed it would be his last opportunity to earn a winner's medal in Spurs colours — something Kane and Lloris went in search of at other clubs while he stayed.
And, on that fateful night in Spain, Son finally got that monkey off his back, dropping to his knees at the final whistle, the trophy drought washed away by his tears of joy.
