Incredible, mind blowing even. Without sounding cynical the Club need to find a younger Son between now and when he finishes at the club.
From Football London
The huge financial impact of Spurs' Korea tour
Tottenham's tour to South Korea only lasted seven days but the impact of it will be felt for years to come.
Spurs took 107 people with them to Seoul, including the players, coaching and fitness staff, medical and sports science team, their social media, communications and marketing staff, global coaches as well as various members of the club's hierarchy. They all stayed at one of the finest hotels South Korea has to offer.
Yet their involvement in the Coupang Series and the long-reaching effects of this tour means any expense incurred will be negligible compared to the immediate and long-term financial gains from their week in Korea.
Son Heung-min of course holds the key to all. It's easy to underestimate exactly what it looks like when one man captivates a nation as the South Korea captain does. He's the perfect role model, one of the world's most talented players and millions of his compatriots adore the Premier League Golden Boot winner. He is a national hero.
Hundreds upon hundreds of people at the airport cheered as they watched him greet the team as Conte, Kane & Co arrived and they did so again when he left with them a week later. K-Pop stars arrived at events and the team hotel simply to try to get photos with him. Yet that is merely the tip of the iceberg.
To put it into context, Spurs are the most watched and best supported overseas club in South Korea. The population of the country is 51 million and of that a staggering 12 million say they are Tottenham fans.
Spurs' match on Wednesday night against Team K-League was streamed online by two million people, making it the single biggest streamed sporting event in Korean history. The numbers for the match against Sevilla were expected to hit similar numbers.
In the two stadiums, 108,000 people were in the crowd across the two games. The 64,000 tickets for the Seoul World Cup Stadium sold out in 25 minutes, the 44,000 in Suwon were gone in 20.
At one of the stalls at the game on Saturday, Spurs' sponsors AIA had 500 people queuing for around an hour to have their photo taken with merely cardboard cut-outs of the players, including Son, just to be in with a chance of winning a scarf or a hat.
Sonnymania is astonishing to witness. Those who have seen the effects of both believe Son is a bigger brand in Asia than David Beckham was at his height across the world.
Spurs' chief financial officer, the Boston-born Todd Kline, was on the tour in Korea with the club, utilising his experience in the NFL and with AEG to maximise the club's remarkable popularity in the country to ensure it is not only all about Son but also an opportunity to create generations of fans who follow the club for decades to come.
On a single matchdays in the club shop at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the club can sell 700 ‘Son 7’ shirts, but to suggest that Korean fans only care about Son would be to do them a disservice.
You only have to look at the popularity of the players around him to see that when they are spotted in South Korea and the chants around the Suwon World Cup Stadium were many of those you would find every other week at Tottenham's home across the world.
The official Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Club of South Korea were handing out fans to cool the supporters. They had Antonio Conte's face on one side and the words to various club chants on the other.
That the fans welcoming the team at the airport had such niche shirts held up as an Oliver Skipp Norwich shirt from his loan spell there and a sign for Cristian 'Cuti' Romero which read "Cuti Cutie", showed that this can be a lasting legacy built off the back of Son's popularity.
They cheered when Conte appeared on the big screens at matches and, after the crowd sang his name, the Italian's applause back to them brought one of the biggest roars of the tour.
That is where Kline's expertise comes in and the market is vast for him to do his work within as Spurs' star rises in tow with Son's.
The north London club are the second most followed football team on TikTok, behind only Real Madrid. They recently passed 200 million impressions on the social media platform and 178 million of those were from South Korea, helped by Son's presence.
South Korea has become Tottenham's second biggest e-commerce market behind the UK, with the year to date sales only half of the UK and nearly twice as big as the USA.
Spurs have seized on the opportunity with initiative such as making the postage and packing costs similar to those offered in the UK and both matches in Seoul were watched by crowds mostly wearing one of the club's shirts, many of them the recently-released new season versions.
Despite his status, Son is as humble as they come and he was so honoured that Spurs came to his country and brought everyone for a full tour in front of his people that he welcomed them all with personal gifts waiting in their rooms at the hotel, complete with a personal note expressing his gratitude.
He gave everyone clothing from his new NOS7 range and even the normally-suited Spurs chairman
Daniel Levy was spotted wearing his t-shirt from the collection around the hotel and nearby shopping mall.
"It’s incredible. The fans, the love… we’re feeling the love the fans are giving us," said Son. "I’ve been here with Leverkusen and also Hamburg, but with Spurs I think it’s more special because the fans are more interested in our football and the big players. I’m just so grateful that everyone loves us, loves the Spurs and loves the team."
Son also paid the bill when he took his team-mates out for a night of traditional Korean barbecue in Seoul on Thursday evening, with captain Hugo Lloris telling
football.london that it was the shared 'good moment' the squad had needed to bond and relax from the hustle and bustle from their schedule.
fuck off!!!
Airfixx
posted, maybe he's the real deal!www.dailymail.co.uk
