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| Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min, left, falls after being fouled by West Ham's Arthur Masuaku during the English Premier League soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at White Hart Lane in London, Saturday. AP-Yonhap |
By John Duerden
Is Son Heung-min the best ever Asian player?
That is the question being asked around the continent at the moment. Every season the forward seems to improve and three goals against Manchester City in the quarterfinal of the UEFA Champions League were instrumental in Tottenham Hotspur's narrow and dramatic victory. The first leg of the semifinal against Ajax of Amsterdam awaits this week.
In his fourth season at Spurs, Son has established himself as one of the shining lights of the English Premier League. His exploits have been well documented in many places, including here, but there are many wondering if Son is the best player that Asia has ever produced.
Many of the big Asian soccer nations have claims of their own. Iran has Ali Daei, the striker who scored 109 international goals, more than anyone else. Japan has Hidetoshi Nakata who went to Italy in 1998 and played for some big clubs in Parma, Roma and Fiorentina when Serie A was the toughest league in the world. Saudi Arabia has Sami Al Jaber who appeared at four World Cups. Those are just a few examples.
Not long ago, many Korean fans would have opted for Cha Bum-kun, perhaps the first Asian player to really make waves in Europe in living memory. "Cha Boom" played in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen from 1979 to 1988. It was a time when Asian players just did not go to Europe and a time when the Bundesliga was extremely tough. Cha scored 121 goals in Europe and helped Leverkusen to the 1988 UEFA Cup (a big deal back then and harder to win, say some, than the European Cup) and making quite a name for himself in Germany, where he is still revered.
Then there is Park Ji-sung. The midfielder has won more major prizes than any other Asian star. After joining Manchester United in 2005, he picked up four Premier League titles, domestic cups, the UEFA Champions League and the Club World Cup. Yet while United is a bigger club than Spurs, Park was never as important to the team as Son is to Tottenham.
Son is certainly the best-known Asian player ever, thanks to his performances and the profile of the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. In a recent fan survey in South Korea, more than half of the 500 respondents picked Son over Cha as the better player (51.5% to 30.5%). Being the most recent helps but there is a growing case to be made that Son is not only the best Korean player ever but the greatest to come from Asia.
No Asian player has made such an impact on the biggest stages in the modern game. It is no flash in the pan either. Son has been impressing and improving for the past six or seven years, first with Hamburg then Bayer Leverkusen and now Spurs. If he can lead Tottenham to a first UEFA Champions League title ― the team has never made it past the last eight before ― then it will become increasingly hard to argue against the assertion that Son is Asia's best ever.
