Over the summer, before Tottenham Hotspur began its preseason tour through his native South Korea, star forward Son Heung-min briefly looked for a small welcome present to give to each of his teammates upon their arrival. But then, instead, he decided to go all out. For four straight days he feted them with designer sunglasses, custom T-shirts and other swag donated by his lineup of global sponsors, in addition to personally purchased items like ornately decorated sets of chopsticks and spoons.
“The expectations and pressure only got higher,” Son says. “I didn’t give anything after the fourth day, so the players were coming to me, asking, ‘Any more gifts?’”
Son, who turned 30 just before the tour kicked off, didn’t mind the razzing. Fourteen years ago, when he first left home in the city of Chuncheon to join Hamburg’s youth academy in Germany, Son felt like a total outsider in his new home.
