KUALA LUMPUR: Son Heung Min is the pride and joy of Asian football with his countless exploits in Europe. The 31-year-old is not the first South Korean to be successful in one of the world's toughest leagues but definitely the best among his peers in recent times.
Heung Min, who started his career at Bundesliga side Hamburger SV, has achieved many significant firsts for Asia in the English Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur.
The Chuncheon-born broke another barrier when he was named the first non-European captain of Spurs, taking over the armband from the revered Hugo Lloris.
The highlight of Heung Min's illustrious career came when he won the Premier League Golden Boot during the 2021-22 season. With a career-high 23 goals, Heung Min shattered expectations, etching into the history books as the first Asian player to claim the league's top goal-scoring honour.
And last season, the Korean cemented his name in football history by becoming the first Asian to notch 100 career goals in the Premier League.
The forward has dismantled many barriers and challenges in front of him, proving that talent knows no geographical boundaries and that Asian football is growing.
His achievements have raised the bar for Asian footballers, which offers the continent's top players a challenge to chase glory in Europe.
On Saturday, Heung Min scored his fourth career hat-trick in the Premier League, earning his first goals this season in Spurs' 5-2 thrashing of Burnley at Turf Moor.
Many thought the departure of England striker Harry Kane to Bayern Munich would weaken Spurs, but the club have stayed unbeaten in the Premier League with three wins and one draw under coach Ange Postecoglou.
Kane and Heung Min formed a formidable pairing in the past, but maybe the former's departure will be a blessing for the Korean to break more records and barriers being the club's main striker.
Spurs fans have forgotten Kane and now have a new hero in Heung Min to lead them to glory and maybe the Premier League one day.
Heung Min is definitely hungry for more Premier League heroics, and it would be the icing on the cake if he becomes the fifth Asian to win the Premier League after Park Ji Sung (Manchester United — four titles), Shinji Kagawa (Manchester United — one), Shinji Okazaki (Leicester City — one) and Takumi Minamino (Liverpool — one).
Heung Min did not just walk into Europe with opportunities waiting for him. It came with hard work, dedication and overcoming racist fans in Europe.
His father, Son Woong Jung, a retired footballer who once played for the South Korean national B team and now runs an academy, was a strict parent. Spurs fans recognise Woong Jung's role behind his son's phenomenal success in the Premier League.
Woong Jung demanded only the best from Heung Min in training during his formative years in football. After a stint in an academy at FC Seoul, Heung Min moved to Germany when he was only 16 to join Hamburger SV's youth academy through the Korean FA Youth Project.
And he was so determined to make a name in Germany that he learned German by watching episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Heung Min is also the captain of the Korean national team, and Malaysian fans will get a treat when Harimau Malaya take on the Taegeuk Warriors in the Asian Cup in Doha next year.
Heung Min will definitely not be taking Harimau Malaya lightly after his bitter experience at the Indonesia Asian Games in 2018. Then, the Malaysian team upstaged Korea, led by World Cup star Heung Min, 2-1 in a group match of the Under-23 tournament. Despite the defeat, Korea went on to clinch the Asian Games gold medal.
Heung Min's dedication and dare-to-dream attitude should be adopted in Malaysian football. Talented youths in the country should think far and work hard to achieve their dreams of playing in Europe with a merited playing contract.
For the up-and-coming players, the M-League should only be used as a stepping stone to bigger goals and not play in until retirement.
Ajitpal Singh is the Sports Editor of NST
