Olympic Channel reports eight things about Son Heung-min

The Olympic Channel run by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) shed light on the evolution of football star Son Heung-min on Tuesday under the title, “Eight things about Son Heung-min that will make you like him even more.”

The first thing they introduced about Son is the fact that Son’s father would train him for four hours every day when he was young. “As soon as I could walk, I was kicking a ball,” said Son. The fact Son still lives with his parents appeared to be something interesting to Westerners, because young people in the West leave their parents’ home when they reach 20. “My parents gave up their life and they come over here to help me,” said Son.

If there is one thing fans are most interested in is when Son will get married. Unlike other professional footballers playing overseas, Son is still single. “I want to make sure that while I play at the top level, football can be number one,” said Son. “When you retire, or when you are 33 or 34, you can still have a long life with your family.”

The Olympic Channel took note of the fact that Son Heung-min has bigger influence than BTS. The channel used a report by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Korea Institute of Sport Science in December 2020 to explain that Son’s economic impact is even greater than that of BTS. “Son Heung-min’s economic effect is estimated at 1.988 trillion won while earlier, in September this year, they estimated the effect of BTS at the top of Billboard Hot 100 at 1.7125 trillion won,” wrote Olympic Channel.

The channel also noticed the fact that there are more Tottenham fans in South Korea than in the U.K. “In a country of 52 million people, 21.4% of South Koreans aged 16 to 69 identify as Tottenham fans - that's around 11 million fans,” wrote Olympic Channel quoting a report by Reuters. It added that Tottenham’s popularity in South Korea illustrates the positive impact a standout player can have on a sports franchise.


Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com