It has been reported that ‘Captain Son’ Son Heung-min is in the process of renewing his contract with Tottenham.
On the 21st, British media such as ’90MIN’ said, “Tottenham wants to continue with Son Heung-min,” and “Tottenham is trying to keep Son Heung-min with a long-term contract, not a short-term contract, and there is a high possibility of agreeing on a contract before Christmas this year.” did. He also announced, “If the agreement progresses quickly, an agreement can be reached within a few weeks.”
Next, the Telegraph, a leading British newspaper, reported on the 22nd, “Tottenham will activate Son Heung-min’s contract extension option to avoid a repeat of the same case as Kane.”
Tottenham transferred Kane, who was a key member of the team, to Bayern Munich ahead of this season. He left for the Bundesliga, giving Tottenham a transfer fee of up to 120 million pounds (about 202.9 billion won).
Initially, Tottenham wanted to keep Kane unconditionally. Chairman Daniel Levy stated that he would not accept any proposals to transfer Kane. However, the length of his contract was a hindrance. Kane was under contract with Tottenham until the summer of 2024, and Tottenham had no choice but to let him go as a free agent next summer if he stayed in this summer transfer market and did not sign a new contract.
Meanwhile, Tottenham appears to be planning to extend the contract of team captain Son Heung-min to avoid a case like Kane, allowing discussions about his future to proceed relatively without the burden of a transfer.
The Telegraph said, “Tottenham will avoid uncertainty in Son Heung-min’s summer transfer market by activating the option to extend Son Heung-min’s contract. Son Heung-min’s existing contract is scheduled to expire in the summer of 2025, but according to news, Tottenham will extend the contract for at least another year. “It is known that he has the option to do so. If that happens, it means that Son Heung-min can focus on Tottenham until 2026,” he said, noting that Tottenham plans to activate Son Heung-min’s contract extension option. 레고토토
He continued, “However, the club may wait until the end of the season to activate Son Heung-min’s option. The reason is that the club is already very comfortable with his future and there is no need to hinder him at all during the season.” He also said that out of consideration for Son Heung-min, he will not pursue activating the option right away.
Son Heung-min is currently under contract with Tottenham until 2025.
Son Heung-min is 31 years old this year. He is clearly not a young player. He is the fourth oldest in the team, following Hugo Lloris, Fraser Forster and Ivan Perisic. Nevertheless, Tottenham is conveying its intention to continue with Son Heung-min on a long-term contract.
’90MIN’ said, “Son Heung-min started the season fresh despite being 31 years old,” and added, “He even scored a hat-trick against Burnley.” In addition, “Tottenham wanted to discuss a contract extension after confirming the compatibility between newly appointed coach Enzi Postekoglou and Son Heung-min. The two combinations are fantastic,” indicating that the new coach’s intention was to extend Son Heung-min’s contract and furthermore renew his contract. It was reported that it had a great impact.
At a fan forum with Tottenham fans held on the 20th, Coach Postekoglou said, “There are a lot of young players in the current Tottenham starting lineup. (The young players) are at a huge soccer club and can be very nervous depending on the game.” While not hiding his concerns about young players, he said, “However, many players are living comfortably thanks to Son Heung-min, (new vice-captain) James Maddison, and Christian Romero.” This means that the team’s captain is leading the players well and is on a rapid run with 4 wins and 1 draw in the first 5 games of the Premier League.
Son Heung-min’s weekly salary, according to Spotrac, a platform specializing in sports-related finances, is 190,000 pounds (about 300 million won). When converted to annual salary, his salary is a large sum equivalent to approximately 16.3 billion won.
In 2018, Tottenham and Son Heung-min renewed their contract and were originally scheduled to play until 2024, but after the 2020/21 season, it was extended by one year, extending the expiration period to 2025. Thanks to this, he was able to receive an increase from the annual salary of 7.2 million pounds (about 11 billion won), which he received until 2018, to the current amount.
In addition, looking at Son Heung-min’s contract record recorded by ‘Spotrack’, Son Heung-min’s annual salary is steadily rising. When Son Heung-min joined Tottenham in 2015, he received an annual salary of 4.4 million pounds (about 7.2 billion won), but Son Heung-min’s annual salary increases by a whopping 4 billion won each time he renews his contract.
Thanks to this, Son Heung-min has now become the player who receives the highest weekly salary in the club. According to the ranking of Tottenham players’ weekly wages reported by the Middle Eastern media ‘The National’ in July, “Tottenham’s star Harry Kane and midfielder Tanguy Ndombele received a weekly salary of 200,000 pounds (about 320 million won). Son Heung-min received this. “I finished in third place after the two players,” he announced.
However, last summer, Kane transferred permanently to Bayern Munich in Germany, and Ndombele recently went on loan to Turkye Galatasaray, making Son Heung-min the highest paid player among the players currently remaining in the team.
It is a performance well worth the high salary.
Son Heung-min is one of the veterans who has played for Tottenham for eight seasons since 2015. He also won the top scorer award for the 2021/22 season, becoming the club’s only Premier League top scorer since the 1990s, other than Kane.
In addition, he has scored 175 goals for Tottenham alone, making him the second highest scorer in the club’s career, following Harry Kane’s 278 goals. According to the soccer specialized portal ‘Transfermarkt’, after Son Heung-min, all players up to seventh place are retired players.
8th place is Christian Eriksen (69 goals), currently playing for Manchester United. Son Heung-min is truly Tottenham’s ‘Living Legend’. In the 2022/23 season, he was somewhat sluggish due to facial injuries and hernia abnormalities, scoring 10 goals and 6 assists in 36 games, but he also surpassed 10 goals.
The Tottenham team, led by Son Heung-min, will play the 6th round of the Premier League against Arsenal at 10 pm on the 24th.
While attention is being paid to whether Tottenham, which has recently enjoyed an upward trend, can achieve a victory against its long-time rival, watching how Son Heung-min will perform can also be a point of watching the game. It remains to be seen whether Son Heung-min can sign a near-lifelong contract at Tottenham.