With 454 matches, 173 goals, the 2020 Puskás Award, the 2022 Premier League Golden Boot, and most importantly of all, the 2025 Europa League title under his belt, Tottenham Hotspur legend Son Heung-min wrapped up an incredible decade at the North London club in an off-season friendly which finished in a 1-1 draw.
The match itself, however, was barely even relevant - it was merely the backdrop of the main story: Son’s final match as a Tottenham player. The deafening applause that the South Korean winger received when was substituted in the 65th minute as he stepped off the turf in a Tottenham jersey for the very last time said it all. While it hasn’t yet been outright confirmed, it’s all but certain that Son will end up signing for MLS club Los Angeles FC.
There are so many angles from which we could look back at Son’s career - but the most important has to be the fact that by a large margin, Son is the greatest player to ever come out of Asia. This was a title which prior to Son’s emergence had multiple viable candidates: Shunsuke Nakamura, Park Ji-sung, and Yūto Nagatomo are some of the legends whose names might have once been brought up.
However, there’s no question that at this point, Son has left them all in the dust. It’s not even close anymore. None of the others had ever been arguably the best player of a team contending for a Champions League spot. None of them had even been considered as perhaps one of the 10 best players in the world even at their absolute apex. And most importantly, none of them have even been close to being able to elevate the profile of Asian football in general to the extent that Son has.
It’s very possible - in fact, probable even - that Son chose this off-season to leave Tottenham because he did something that legendary names like Gareth Bale, Luka Modrić, and Harry Kane never could; that, of course, would be being the best player on a title-winning Tottenham team. True, it was “only” the Europa League - not one of the three major titles - and it was over a Manchester United side which were coming to the end of an abject season - but one has to keep in mind that Tottenham’s trophy drought stretched all the way back to 2008.
In addition, Tottenham themselves had endured a dismal Premier League campaign which saw them finish 17th, just one spot ahead of the relegation zone. Despite firing Ange Postecoglou after his eventful two-year stint coaching Tottenham, there’s no guarantee that things will change for the better at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the coming season. With their best player now gone as well, relegation is absolutely on the table. It could be many, many years before Tottenham again add to their trophy cabinet - and that, combined with the end of the “lads, it’s Tottenham” jokes - made the Europa League victory especially sweet. That one Europa League title was not only the most fitting of swansongs - it will also forever serve as the symbol of Son’s legacy at the club.
On that note, this brings up the question: where does Son Heung-min rank among all of Tottenham’s all-time greats? Well, given everything he did in his 10 years at the club, it’s safe to say that Son is easily the fourth head on Tottenham’s Mount Rushmore alongside those of Kane, Jimmy Greaves, and Glenn Hoddle.
He’s in the club’s top 10 in appearances and goals, was thrice selected as the club’s Player of the Season, and ever since Kane’s departure for Bayern Munich in the 2023 off-season has been just about the only thing that Tottenham have had going for them. For all but his first year at Tottenham, he was no worse than the third-best player on the team.
With Son Heung-min’s departure for California, Tottenham Hotspur will enter the 2025-26 season not only as fringe relegation candidates, but also without even one truly elite player on their roster for the first time in many years. It’s safe to say that whatever happens to Tottenham going forward, the man from Chuncheon in the #7 jersey will be all but impossible to replace.