Football player (Premier League)
| Life | 1992 |
| Era | 현대 |
| Clan | 밀양 손씨 |
Son Heung-min (1992- ) is a South Korean footballer born in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, to former footballer Son Woong-jung and Gil Eun-ja. He moved to Germany at sixteen to join Hamburger SV, debuting in the Bundesliga in 2010, before transferring to Bayer Leverkusen in 2013 for a 10 million euro fee.
In 2015 he joined Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League for what was then the highest transfer fee ever paid for an Asian player, and became one of the league's leading forwards. Winning gold at the 2018 Asian Games earned him exemption from mandatory military service, and in the 2021-22 season he tied Mohamed Salah for the league's top scorer award, becoming the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot; in April 2023 he became the first Asian player to reach 100 Premier League goals.
He captains the South Korea national team and shares the record for most World Cup goals by a Korean player alongside Park Ji-sung and Ahn Jung-hwan. He won the FIFA Puskas Award in 2019 and finished 22nd and 11th in Ballon d'Or voting in 2019 and 2022, respectively.