Now, the hand kicking argument is meaningless.
Tottenham won the Europa League (UEL) final 1-0 against Manchester United in the 2024-2025 season at Estadio San Mames in Bilbao, Spain on the 22nd (Korea time). Tottenham won the trophy for the first time in 17 years, and Son Heung-min won his first club trophy.
Son Heung-min was excluded from the starting list on the day. Tottenham manager Enze Postecoglou judged that Son Heung-min's physical condition is not 100% yet. Son Heung-min, who was sitting more earnestly than anyone else on the bench, played in the 22nd minute of the second half.
Son Heung-min tried to be as helpful to the team as possible by focusing on defense. Son Heung-min and Tottenham players succeeded in holding out until the end and won the championship. As soon as the championship was confirmed, Son Heung-min collapsed and shed tears. In the previous two finals, Son Heung-min shed tears of sadness every time he lost, but today it was tears of joy and joy.
Son Heung-min is now a flawless player. There have been many individual awards that have never been seen in the history of Asian soccer, but it was always a trophy that was unfortunate in the evaluation of Son Heung-min. In fact, despite the fact that trophies cannot be brought only by individual competence in football, a team sport, Son Heung-min's malicious undervaluation of not leading the team to victory has been steady.
Another reason why the trophy played a disadvantage in the evaluation of Son Heung-min was that Korean soccer legends before Son Heung-min achieved the feat of winning. First of all, Park Ji-sung is a career in the history of Asian soccer. Since the days of Kyoto Purple Shopping Center, 'Related Power' has been great. He has also won four times at PSV Eindhoven and reached the top of England and Europe at Manchester United. As a member of the Korean national team, he also played a major role in achieving the semifinals of the World Cup and the first round of the away World Cup.
Cha Bum-keun also won the UEFA Cup, the predecessor of UEL, in Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen. Park Ji-sung and Cha Bum-keun's winning histories were so spectacular that in evaluating Son Heung-min, the victory was the final piece of the puzzle that was not completed as Son Heung-min said.
The puzzle was completed as the final piece of Son Heung-min's career was filled with the UEL victory. As it took a long time, the narrative became more perfect. It remained until the end for Tottenham, which everyone ridiculed as an unwinnable club, and even gave Tottenham a trophy as captain. Now there is nothing to cut Son Heung-min off.
I hope there will be a player who will surpass Son Heung-min in Korean soccer in the future, but for the time being, frankly, it will not be easy for a player to surpass Son Heung-min for quite some time to come out. That's how much Son Heung-min became the perfect player with this victory.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
