Recently, Sonny released his autobiography, one of which contained the entire saga of his transfer from Leverkusen to Spurs.
Here is a detailed breakdown of events:
- During the 2014-15 season, Son often becomes the first player to be subbed without a clear explanation from the team.
(This was widely considered to be due to Leverkusen trying to develop their highly touted youngster, Julian Brandt.)
- Son feels that he is being disrespected within a club for the first time in his career.
- Transfer rumors starts circulating. Simultaneously, Son attracts strong attention from Spurs and Liverpool. Liverpool actually appears to be in the lead, inviting Son's father to the club.
- However, Spurs eventually express stronger interest, stating that they have prepared number 7 for Son.
- Spurs wins the race against Liverpool. However, a huge hurdle remained in negotiation with Leverkusen.
(Spurs actually held interest for Son when he was 18, offering 12M € around 2010.)
- Meanwhile, Son becomes the first player to be subbed again for the first two games in the 15/16 season, solidifying his intent to transfer.
- Leverkusen rejects Tottenham's initial offer due to 3 years being left on Son's contract.
- Levy offers higher fee, but Leverkusen's Rudi Völler, the sporting director for the club, rejects again.
- The negotiation starts in the morning, but there are no agreements made by 4 PM that day.
- Levy tells Son and his family that he will make a final offer. If Leverkusen rejects this time, there will be no transfer.
- 30 minutes later, Levy tells Son's agent that the negotiation broke down. Völler starts leaving. Son will stay at Leverkusen.
- Son's father, Son Woong-Jung is furious. Visibly frustrated, he grabs the sleeve of Völler and starts shaking.
- Völler is surprised at the extremely strong intent by Son to leave the club.
- Levy seizes this opportunity and makes an instant offer:
"There are a lot of procedures for the transfer to be completed. So we'll take him to London and we can talk about the fee over the phone. If that breaks down, we will send Son back to Leverkusen."
- After another long period of negotiation, Völler accepts.
- Son, depressed that the transfer broke down, suddenly receives a phone call to bring his passport to the airport.
- On the private jet headed to London, Daniel Levy a.k.a. Bald Genius smiles, stating that "the side with the player has an edge." Levy is a legend.
- The next day, Leverkusen starts telling the press that states that Son is purposefully missing training. Leverkusen's manager calls this "unprofessional behavior."
- However, Völler does not tell the team where Son is, as they still haven't agreed on the fee.
- Leverkusen teammates, not having a clue what's going on, tries to contact Son, but he ignores because he did not how to respond. Teammates, especially Hakan Çalhanoğlu, are pretty mad.
- Nobody knows where Son is at this point except Son's family and Levy: he is in London undergoing a medical.