Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min is in talks with the club over a new contract, according to a report.
Ange Postecoglou gave the South Korean captain the armband this summer since Harry Kane left for Bayern Munich and Hugo Lloris was no longer a first-team option.
Son struggled to reach his prior levels in the 2022–23 season, but he found his scoring touch again with a hat trick in a 5-2 victory over Burnley just before the break.
The 31-year-old has yet to score or provide an assist in any of Tottenham’s other four Premier League games this season, but his contributions have been vital to the club’s successful start.
Son merely signed an extension to his contract in 2021, and it will not expire until the conclusion of the 2024–25 season. However, 90min believes that the club wants to keep Son longer.
In the best-case scenario, a renewal may be completed in a few weeks, despite Tottenham’s alleged optimism about reaching an agreement on a new long-term contract with the attacker before Christmas.
The Lilywhites apparently had intentions of extending Son’s deal earlier this year, but the club wanted to see how well the attacker got on with Postecoglou before making a firm decision.
However, with Son and Postecoglou’s relationship blossoming, Tottenham have quickly accelerated contract talks with their captain, and there should not be any major roadblocks on the player’s side.
Postecoglou lavished praise on the former Bayer Leverkusen man during a recent fans’ forum, while also reserving special praise for Cristian Romero and James Maddison for taking on the duties of vice-captains.
“Everyone knows he’s a fantastic footballer but he’s just a brilliant human being. For any sort of manager, when you’re looking for leaders in a group and they’re all different types, firstly what kind of person are they is really important when setting up a team,” 90min quotes Postecoglou as saying.
“Even from afar, even before I joined the club, obviously I’ve known Sonny for a long time because being from that part of the world myself and working in Asia and the exposure I had to his standing in the community there, you can tell he was respected. Whether it was teammates or opponents, everyone spoke really highly of him. I think he was the perfect embodiment.
“I think Sonny and [new vice-captains] James Maddison and Cuti Romero, they’ve embraced that leadership role. All the boys, irrespective of whether they’ve been here two months or ten years, they feel really comfortable in there. That’s because of the people who are the leaders, not necessarily the players but the people.”
Tottenham paid a modest £26m to bring Son to the club from Leverkusen in 2015, and the South Korea international has since contributed 148 goals and 80 assists from 378 appearances, putting him sixth on the club’s all-time scoring charts.
Son is the only non-British player to have ever scored more goals for Tottenham, and only Harry Kane (45) has scored more goals for the Lilywhites in Europe than the 31-year-old (24).
The attacker also made history by being the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot in 2021–2022 after scoring 23 goals to tie Mohamed Salah of Liverpool for first place.
Alfie Whiteman, Tottenham’s backup goalkeeper, has a contract extension through the conclusion of the 2024–25 season thanks to one contract extension reached so far in 2023.
