Son Woong-Jung, Director of the Son Soccer Academy, opened up about the youth of football player and son, Son Heung-Min, on reality show ‘You Quiz on the Block.’ The broadcast aired on December 14th and revealed episodes of the Tottenham Hotspur football player during his youth and upbringing.
Director Son revealed that Son Heung-Min first announced that he would like to play soccer when in third grade of elementary school. Since then, Son Woong-Jung started training together with his son and commented, "You cannot run 100m with a child who cannot even walk. If you ignore the basics and play, the quality of results will not be good. That is why I started training from the basics with Heung-Min, and the basic was controlling the ball.”
Director Son Woong-Jung continued, "Since the kids start training at such a young age, they are overworked by the time they enter the professional league, which leads them to many health problems.” He added, “you see young players getting operations because they have been overworking themselves.” He reasoned that this is why Son Heung-Min only started shooting practice after he was 18 years old. This means that Son Heung-Min did not do shooting practice before joining Hamburg.
Director Son explained, "Now at the academy, the children are going through the same process. Children are too young and weak to hit the ball far or hard. Their muscles and joints are still maturing so they do not practice shoots.”
Director Son also showed affection by adding, "If your child is going to play football professionally, you have to pace them and look far ahead.”
During the close-up interview, it was revealed. That Son Heung-Min only trained basic skills for six hours every day for six years from Year 3 to Year 9.
Director Son Woong-Jung confessed, "someone even reported me to the police because we literally worked so hard without ever missing a day of practice, whether it be New Year’s Day or Christmas.”
He ended by saying, “the most important thing always has been and will be Son Heung-Min’s happiness. He just needs to be happy when playing football. However, in order to be happy, he has to play football well.”
Lastly, when asked by the hosts if Director and father Son thinks his son is a world-class football player, Son Woong-Jung answered, “I would not say that. He is only himself and nothing has changed.”
