Heung-Min Son in South Korea wants to bring world-class

Heung-Min Son does not seem a man burdened by the weight of national expectation when it goes into a studio in Seoul, Gangnam. The soccer star of South Korea enters its national team shirt and long pulls red socks on the shins before his trademark smile for photographers breaks out, their eyes sparkle and smile lines crackle cheeks. “In every country I have left, if you smile at people, they are going to be happy. This is my attitude is:” My son, 25, told TIME. A truism perhaps, but this reporter, at least, it works. Son will be natural brightness of the responsibilities you are wrong, like South Korea Talisman faced in the World Cup, the June 14 kick-off as a striker for English Premier League Tottenham Hotspur has in Russia, the Asian top scorer that elite league history. And when the two-time Asian Football Confederation Player of the Year, is aware that it is not just national pride is at stake. The fact that the young players in the region dream of emulating his career has “goose bumps,” he says. “At Tottenham Hotspur, we can share the pressure, but Team South Korea, some players have more pressure than others,” admits a son. At the same time, that stress motivates him. “How many people have pressure like that?” He asks. “I’m a lucky guy.” The pressure can be in this football World Cup in South Korea great outing on the world stage is at stake are overshadowed by the political theater even more. The on-again, off-again summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the US president Donald Trump on June 12, two days seem to be back before the start of the tournament and the North and South have decided to military talks to hold its opening day. The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February looked like a spotlight on the role that international sports competitions to defuse tensions between nations can play. After a year of saber rattling and missile tests, North and South Korea marched under one flag at the opening ceremony. The North does not qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but neither have the media did not play one day in search of a unified team. “I dream,” he says. “Of course people would be happy to see us play together because we are a country.” Football popularity increased in South Korea after the country co-hosted the World Cup with Japan in 2002, nine years, seemed son, lover, as the Reds defeated the European football giants Portugal, Spain and Italy reach the tournament semifinals. Son was soon increased with the youth of FC Seoul for training and he left Korea at the age of 16 to join German Bundesliga team Hamburg St. V. He later played for Bayer Leverkusen. These early years in Europe were tough, he says, and although now speaks German and English, the learning curve was steep. When he reported for Tottenham in a cost will be signed by approximately $30 million in 2015, the son was the most expensive of Asian football player in history. He has to justify that this is the price tag, second best scorer of the team last season. His sunny attitude him a blow with his teammate north London, who has treated to a Korean barbecue buffet shortly after his arrival in the United Kingdom has said that regularly asks “Gangnam Style” run 2012 South Korean pop star Psy. Spurs fans prefer the Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun” when he runs into the field to sing. It still has such a success with the Reds was his senior debut World Championship in Brazil did in 2014 South Korea has failed beyond the group stage onwards this year, and in a traditional Korean insult, annoy fans pelted players with sweets on their back when she landed at Incheon international Airport. Son national expectations extend beyond football. All able-bodied men in South Korea are responsible before the age of 21 months of military service from 28, and son, like many stars of the youngest sports, she performed her. However, there may be a national scandal if a celebrity, the project will have thought evaded; naturalized by the Korean-American pop star Steve Yoo a US citizen avoided military service in 2002, becoming, has forbidden to re-enter South Korea. To the son who will turn 26 in July a two-year absence from the game missing it would mean that a football player considered the peak years in the rule. The annoyed ability not only South Koreans but also fan base fans of Tottenham Hotspur. Asked if it weighs on the players’ heads, not to say that often the military child. I think not much ‘speaks his agent cuts other related questions. An exit clause Son exists in the form of the Asian Games, which take place in Indonesia in August. Winners of gold medals are exempt from military service, and the child could still play for the team. Some of his teammates are already liberated from the full military service have taken the field when South Korea won the Asian Games gold and bronze at the Olympic Games of 2012 in London at the 2014i Son first priority, however, Korea South will help to get through a tough group that includes the holder of the World Cup in Germany and well regarded Mexico and Sweden. “We’re the weakest team, so we need to work harder than the group. We need more of them running then we can surprise people,” he says. The night before the meeting of June 2, a few hundred South Korean fans had assembled on a square in the center of the son of Seoul, the captain Ki Sung-Yong and the team plays its last native warm-up match before the World Cup watching. In breezy evening wore some pieces of red clothing and waving the national flag. But the Bosnia and Herzegovina team easily broke through the defense of the Reds, and groans rang out as an opposition wing Edin Visca his hat-trick ended 3-1 to end the game. “Four days ago we played against Honduras and won 2-0. The press interviews, all of us do well,” says Son. “Four days later we lost, and found negative. But this is football. And we just need to concentrate on our football “Even with his son, it is likely South Korea World Cup is long. FIFA ranking the 61st team in the world. Japan 60th and China ranks 73rd: And despite the popularity of the sport in the region, other Asian teams fare little ‘better. (Women’s Teams Asia ranked higher.) What would it take to bring Asian nations in conflict with European and South American supporters at the top of FIFA rankings? Hanjin Chun, secretary general of the Korea Football Association, says that while Asian stars like son playing at home in Europe drumming enthusiastically, “you do not play every player on your team may have abroad.” A stronger league “is a must,” he says. It ‘clear that Sun enjoys in the team of an elder statesman for the young players to be. He was advised of Woong-jung son of his father, a player in the domestic K-League before a career-ending injury at the age of 28. The oldest son has suffered from his son Hone helped his technique and drilled his meticulously once weak left foot. He also warned several times against such a physically and mentally exhausting the game could be. As a boy with big dreams, says his son this advice went head over “but at 25, I know what it means.” Son to wear a splint on one of his fingers from a recent injury. A scar runs along the inside of his forearm, which broke last year South Korea qualify for the World Cup to help. He makes less visible victims: his agent says that when he goes to Seoul wearing a cap and a surgical mask, often worn here when people are sick to avoid being mobbed by fans. These are lower costs, though. “I want to play football until my body says, you are no longer able to run, he’re dead ‘,” he says. “Football is my luck.” And with that, the smile is radiant son back. With reporting by Charlie Campbell / Beijing and Stephen Kim and Ha Yeon Kim / Seoul
image Copyright photograph of Adam Ferguson for TIME