Part 1 By SOB Football
Son Heung-min (Korean: 손흥민; Korean pronunciation: [son.ɣɯŋ.min]; born 8 July 1992) is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and captains the South Korea national team.[2] Considered one of the best forwards in the world and one of the greatest Asian footballers of all time, he is known for his explosive speed, finishing, two-footedness and ability to link play.
Part 1 By SOB Football
Outside of football, Son is viewed as a symbol of national pride in South Korea for his achievements, and has been listed in Forbes Korea Power Celebrity 40 since 2019, where he ranked third in 2022.[13][14][15] In June 2022, Son received the Cheongnyong Medal, the highest order of merit for achievement in sports given to a South Korea citizen, for his achievements in football.[16] Son has been credited for having raised the profile of Tottenham Hotspur among South Koreans, with the club's marketing and social media strategy catering extensively to Korean supporters.[17]
Son came through the academy at FC Seoul, the same club that former Spurs defender Lee Young-pyo played for.[19] Son was a ball boy in an FC Seoul home match in 2008 when he was a FC Seoul youth player.[20] At that time, his role model was midfielder Lee Chung-yong, who played for Crystal Palace and Bolton Wanderers.[21][22] Apart from his native language Korean, Son is also fluent in German and English. His agent Thies Bliemeister said Son was so determined to make himself a success in Europe that he learned German by watching episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants.[23]
In August 2008, Son dropped out of Dongbuk High School's football club (formerly FC Seoul under-18 team)[24] and joined Hamburger SV's youth academy at age 16 through Korean FA Youth Project.[25][26] A year later, he returned to South Korea. After participating in the FIFA U-17 World Cup, he formally joined Hamburger SV's youth academy in November 2009[27]
On 6 April 2020, while football was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, it was confirmed that Son would carry out his mandatory military service for South Korea.[108] After completing a two-week quarantine on his return to Korea, he served with the Marine Corps for three weeks on Jeju Island.[109]
Son turned down the opportunity to participate in the 2012 London Olympics, opting to concentrate on his club career at Hamburger SV. Son was quoted as saying, "In Korea, an Olympic appearance has a special meaning, but I want to speed up for Hamburg. What matters is to pour all my time into team training."[138] Son did, however, play for the national team in the autumn of 2012 for two 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon and Iran,[139] and became a regular call-up in friendlies and World Cup qualifying matches in 2013. In the World Cup qualifier against Qatar on 23 March 2013, Son came on as a substitute in the 81st minute and scored the winning goal in the 96th minute.[140]
In recent years, particularly following his prolific success with Tottenham, he has been considered one of the best players in the world and has often been cited as the greatest Asian footballer of all time.[172][173][174][175][176]
Woong-jung is speaking to The Athletic at the Son Football Academy in Chuncheon, the city in which Heung-min grew up, just over 100 kilometres north east of Seoul. Where the Spurs striker, along with his brother Heung-yun, was coached with laser-like focus and strictness by their father. Where the Son boys would have to keep the ball up for four hours on end, and take part in drills with hundreds of repetitions and have to start again if they faltered, and not allowed to join a team until they were in their mid-teens so that they could nail the basics first.
And so, with Son now a global superstar and currently in the country along with his Tottenham team-mates, this feels like an opportune moment to speak to his family members and understand how he evolved as a footballer and how his family are trying to foster a new generation of South Korean footballers.
The famous exercise where Son had to keep the ball up in the air for hours on end was another staple related to this principle of using all parts of the body, and left a lasting impression on the now-Spurs forward.
Living in Europe, football fans are indulged with the best players and club teams in the world, including the fervour that surrounds them. But that passion is just as keenly felt half a world away, with Son the figurehead for Asian representation in football.
Although Manning has long been considered the top player in the class of 2023, the family remained intent on attempting to keep his recruitment as low-key as possible. His Instagram is private, and he has not been an active participant in name, image and likeness opportunities. But keeping things low-key has still been difficult, considering the family's football history and the magnitude of how much his decision could sway a program's fortune.
Manning is a nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning, a grandson of Archie Manning and son of former Ole Miss wide receiver Cooper Manning. He is the star quarterback at Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans -- throwing for 5,731 yards and 72 touchdowns in his first three years of high school football -- and has been considered a top-flight prospect since middle school.
Stewart added: "Sark, besides being a genius in pass game and second to none in football acumen and offensive ideology, he's a good person. He and A.J. Milwee formed their own relationships. They really took the time to really recruit hm. I was able to see it firsthand."
Manning has developed a reputation as a gym rat who loves football. The biggest knock on him is the competition level in high school, as there will be a steep adjustment in college. But the coaches who recruited Manning were blown away by his work ethic, as he has embraced the details.
Cops claim as part of the search warrant, Kitna's electronic devices were seized -- and they say that an ensuing search revealed the Florida Gators football player was in possession of three additional images of child sexual abuse material. They arrested him and booked him on five charges -- two counts of distribution of child exploitation material and three counts of possession of child pornography -- a short time later.
"We are shocked and saddened to hear of the news involving Jalen Kitna," the statement reads. "These are extremely serious charges and the University of Florida and the UAA have zero tolerance for such behavior. Jalen has been suspended indefinitely from the football program."
Son has already passed 100 goals for Tottenham, helped his country to Asian Games glory in 2018, won the Puskas Award for the best goal scored on the planet in 2020, and was named 'Best footballer in Asia' for a fourth time in a row in the same year.
While there have been whispers of relationships with South Korean pop stars like Bang Min-ah and Yoo So-young, Son is discreet about his personal life and football is his first love.
You Young is next in line to Yuna Kim's figure skating throne, Choi Ji-man and Choo Shin-soo are the latest Koreans to make it to baseball's Major League, and footballers like Kang-in Lee at Valencia are following in Son's footsteps.
Goodwin blew a kiss to the sky before crossing the goal line. He immediately knelt in the end zone, held the football up to the sky in a tribute to his son, Marquise Jr., and then emotionally collapsed to the turf.
Without any professional obligations, Payton headed to the Dallas area in 2012 to spend more time with his two children and wound up becoming the offensive coordinator for his son's middle-school football team. He told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 2012 that, while he paid attention to how the Saints were performing while he was gone, he mostly cherished the extra time with his family.
Put simply, no. A meteoric rise from last place to the playoffs is great for dramatic tension in a movie. What wouldn't have been quite as impactful is the record of the real team, the Liberty Christian Warriors, who started their season with a 30-0 win. One part of Payton's coaching that was true for both real life and fiction: He really did use simplified versions of Saints plays.
CC: Yeah, I liked both of those guys, Keith Zimmer and Dennis Leblanc. They were good guys, they were a huge part of what the university stood for. Academically, there were a lot of great guys around the system, the academic side. The trainers, Doak Ostergard, he worked really well with all of us and tried to keep us healthy. If I had to name some of my favorite people down there, Doak comes to mind, and Bryan Bailey is probably my all-time favorite.
\"I've been playing football ever since I was a kid,\" Patton said. \"It's always been a love of mine. It's always been a love of my dad's. Me and my dad always used to have talks about this situation right here, and he's always told me, 'Don't worry about anything else. You can't measure a football player by their height. You can measure it by their heart.' So I always go by that. If anybody is talking any hate on me or my height or anything like that, that's all I have to say: 'It's the heart of the player, not the height.'\"
\"He's a punt returner\/kick returner,\" Wilson said of Patton during last month's signing day. \"He's got exceptional feet. He runs all the jet sweeps. He can do anything on special teams. He's powerful. He's pound-for-pound one of the toughest football players I've ever been around as a coach. He wore my linebackers out up at the University of Oregon. He's a good complement to the running backs we already have on campus.\"
Patton said he's ready to work for his playing time, a motivation that's driven him since he began playing football. The Atlanta native had scholarship offers from lower-division schools like Butler, Columbia, Presbyterian, Seton Hall and Virginia State, but he wanted to play at the FBS, which led to him walking on at Oregon, where he appeared in six games, including four last season. He has yet to have a college carry but made one tackle with the Ducks and has three seasons of eligibility at Nevada. 041b061a72