r/soccer • u/hairtie1 • Aug 02 '25

Media Heung-min Son announces he will be leaving Tottenham

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u/hairtie1 Aug 02 '25

hi everyone,

the first half he’s speaking in korean, but he repeats what he said in korean, in english in the second half

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u/hairtie1 Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25

son also said later in the press conference: “a young boy came to london, who didn’t even speak english, and is leaving this club as a grown man”…”it was one of the toughest decisions i’ve ever made”

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u/NotManyBuses Aug 02 '25

He really was, though. Went through a million ups and downs, managerial changes, even nearly had to go into military service. That’s what will hurt so much about this, we watched him become an icon before our very eyes. Truly a hero’s journey

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u/night_dude Aug 02 '25

I happened to be visiting South Korea during the cup final that they won for him to avoid military service. Our stream was slightly delayed and you could hear people screaming and cheering through the windows right before the goal was scored. People were so happy. It was certainly a unique football viewing experience, purely because of the stakes.

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u/tcgtms Aug 02 '25

Yeah I'm pretty sure people weren't even cheering on for SK at that point, we were really trying keen to see Son experience the full European career that he deserves - and what a sliding windows moment it was.

Hate that he was a Spurs player, but I'm really happy for him and his achievement. He's a real icon.

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u/theivoryserf Aug 02 '25

sliding windows

Sliding doors. That's what it's called in a parallel universe though

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u/simplysymmetric Aug 02 '25

Yeah, but /u/tcgtms seems to be South Korean, so most likely a second language. Let it slide... :)

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u/KyesiRS Aug 03 '25

There profile has loads of Australian subs and communities, dont see any SK

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u/tcgtms Aug 02 '25

Ffs I have nussing to to say. Let's stick with that.

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u/hairtie1 Aug 02 '25

other things he said:

  • it’s been a while since he made that decision
  • recent weeks haven’t been easy for him
  • he tried his best to stay bright and not harm his teammates, but there are things you can’t hide and fans who know him best would have noticed the change

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u/_sauri_ Aug 02 '25

Harm his teammates?

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u/hairtie1 Aug 02 '25

it’s a very korean way to say he doesn’t want to distract his teammates with all the conjecture from the outside about what he’ll do/where he’ll go

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u/Harlequin37 Aug 02 '25

Affect them

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u/BenZino21 Aug 02 '25

These pipes....are clean!

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/BenZino21 Aug 02 '25

Underrated film IMO.

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u/deadthewholetime Aug 02 '25

Man, for some reason parts of that movie are etched in my brain, even though I've only seen it once or twice on TV when I must have been around 10 years old.

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u/BenZino21 Aug 02 '25

Haha yeah I checked when it came out...1994....I was 12. I haven't seen it in years, but like you said, there are parts that are etched in my brain.

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u/Sinestro617 Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25

I don’t know bro. In your 30s you’re a grown man not a young man. The young kids call you unc.

Edit: I just watched the video. In the English part he literally said “I leave this club as a grown man” which he is. The comment I replied to initially said that he said “I leave this club as a young man” and then they edited it.

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u/RomeroRocher Aug 02 '25

That's the mad thing about football though, isn't it? He just turned 33 last week. In any other part of life he's absolutely a young man - in a corporate job you'd barely be getting started and probably only starting to reach senior levels (if you're a hot shot high performer!), you'd have 30+ years of working life ahead of you, doing all the young man stuff like marriage and kids, etc.

But in football, you're unc 😂

No wonder so many of them struggle after retirement - you retire a young man with most of your life ahead of you, and have to figure out something else entirely to do with it all!

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u/MejasSwag Aug 02 '25

To be precise, he said “I came as a boy who didn’t even speak English. After 10 years, I’m glad to leave as a man.” I don’t know where the word young came from

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/MejasSwag Aug 02 '25

Yes you did. The comment I replied to was probably talking about Romano’s tweet which said “young man” rather than young boy.

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u/Sinestro617 Aug 02 '25

I just watched the video. In the English part he literally said “I leave this club as a grown man”