Son Heung-min is remembered at Bayer Leverkusen as an authentic global star; a player who scored important goals and fired Champions League qualifications and one who brought additional clout on the commercial front. Unfortunately for Son, who returns to his former club with Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League on Tuesday night, the manner of his departure remains fresh in the memory, too.

Son began last season as a Leverkusen player, having started in the Bundesliga opener at home to Hoffenheim and the first leg of the Champions League play off away against Lazio. Then Tottenham ramped up their interest and, on the day before the return against Lazio, there was no sign of Son at Bayer’s open training session.

The South Korea international had been ill the previous weekend and he had missed Bayer’s league fixture at Hannover. However, when he failed to make the game against Lazio, there was disappointment. Bayer were 1-0 down from the first leg and it felt as though they would need all of their attacking weapons.

The Leverkusen sporting director, Rudi Völler, said that Son “would not have played anyway because he was sick at the weekend” but in the same interview he revealed that the forward had been in London to undergo his Tottenham medical. “At this moment, he is our player,” Voller said, at the time. “I saw many medicals in this business where there was no deal afterwards.”

It was a tough sell for Völler and, you suspect, he knew it. On the upside, Bayer beat Lazio 3-0 to advance into the Champions League group phase but it is fair to say that some of the club’s players and members of staff were unimpressed at Son’s timing. Thirty-six hours later, Tottenham made the announcement that he had joined them on a five-year contract.

The incident stands to colour how the 24-year-old is welcomed back to the BayArena, with local commentators having predicted that his reception could be lukewarm. Son admitted on Monday that he was “not sure how it’s going to be,” although he made plain his affection for the club and its supporters. “Nacer Chadli didn’t celebrate when he scored against us on Saturday [for West Bromwich Albion] and if I score on Tuesday, I will not celebrate,” Son said. “I respect Leverkusen too much.”

There is unlikely to be the venom that was directed towards Gonzalo Castro, the former Bayer trainee and club symbol, who moved to Borussia Dortmund over the summer and returned with his new employer at the beginning of the month. The 29-year-old’s every touch during Bayer’s 2-0 win was jeered.

But equally Son is not expected to receive the homecoming hero treatment, which is a pity because he did so much to endear himself during his two-year stint at the club. Never mind that it had long been clear Son saw the Bundesliga as a stepping stone to the Premier League, the way that he left – with the elements of friction – jarred with his nice-guy persona.

Son is one of the nice guys. He has been almost bashful in his post-match dealings with the media in England and it says much about him that he lives in an unprepossessing apartment in Barnet with his parents. His transfer fee to Tottenham of £22m made him the most expensive Asian footballer of all time and he is surely his continent’s most recognisable, at present. Yet he is well known for his down-to-earth nature and one story from his Leverkusen days sums it up.

The area has a sizeable Korean community and, when Bayer signed Son from Hamburg for a then club record €10m, their interest was piqued. A lot of Korean supporters attended Leverkusen matches and they would wait for Son by his car afterwards. There would be queues of 60 or 70 metres, with the fans wanting photographs or signatures. Son always obliged. His mother and father, who would be with him, routinely helped out by taking the pictures or smoothing the shirts for him to sign.

Leverkusen previously had Michael Ballack but it was a different era when the Germany midfielder was rising to prominence with them at the turn of the millennium. Son represents worldwide box-office and the club were not slow to cash in on his appeal. Weeks after his arrival, they had signed a three-year deal with the South Korean company, LG Electronics, to make them their main sponsor and Son was installed as a brand ambassador. LG did not renew with Leverkusen over this past summer, largely because Son had left.

Bayer also toured South Korea, at LG’s invitation, in the summer of 2014, when they played a friendly against FC Seoul – the club at which Son had started his career at youth level. The soundtrack to Son’s every move during the trip was provided by thousands of screaming girls.

Son has long hooked the brands. When he was at Hamburg, another South Korean company, Kumho Tyre – who had previously sponsored Manchester United during Park Ji-sung’s time at Old Trafford – agreed a two-year deal with them. In July of this year, Kumho linked up with Tottenham for two years. Tottenham’s main sponsor is AIA, the pan-Asian insurance group, although they were in place before Son’s arrival, while the club made Fun88 their Asian gaming partner over the summer. Fun88 had previously worked with Tottenham between 2012 and 2014.

Son Heung-min scored 29 goals in 87 appearances for Bayer Leverkusen – an impressive return for a wide attacker. Photograph: Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images

Son’s association with Germany began when he was 16 and he swapped Seoul for the Hamburg academy – a move that advertised his determination to forge a successful career in Europe. He did not speak German or English when he arrived and the first year was tough.

“I didn’t know anybody and no one came with me,” Son said. “My parents came when I moved to England. I felt so alone but so humble, because everyone was helping me. Sometimes, I missed Korea. It’s my home and everyone misses their home when they are not there. But I wanted to play professional football in Europe and this was what I had to do.”

He credits Ruud Van Nistelrooy with helping him to settle. The Holland striker moved to Hamburg when Son was 17 while another Dutchman, Rafael Van Der Vaart, would be an influence. Van Der Vaart signed for Hamburg in the summer of 2012. “Van Nistelrooy helped me a lot,” Son said. “He saw my first training session and he talked to me. He told me I was a good player. He gave me confidence and I want to thank him for that. Also, Van Der Vaart came and he helped me. He told me more about English football and how tough it was. I tried to learn from what he was saying.”

Son has always felt like a young man in a hurry. He learned German quickly and, at 18, he scored on his debut for Hamburg. At Leverkusen, he scored 29 goals in 87 appearances – an impressive return for a wide attacker – and there were memorable ones, not least the winner against Werder Bremen on the final day of the 2013-14 Bundesliga season. Bayer had needed to win in order to secure fourth place ahead of Wolfsburg.

In the Champions League play off at the start of the following season, he scored vital goals against Copenhagen while he helped Leverkusen to finish fourth again in the league. In both of his full seasons at the club, they reached the last 16 of the Champions League.

Son returns to Germany on the crest of a wave, having scored five goals for Tottenham so far this season and wowed, as a No9, in the 2-0 home win against Manchester City at the beginning of the month – a game that was attended by the Leverkusen manager, Roger Schmidt.

Son has put his disappointments from the summer behind him, chiefly, the quarter-final exit from the Rio Olympics he endured with South Korea at the hands of Honduras and the uncertainty over his club future. His travails last season were well documented. After a lively start, he was set back by a foot injury and he flitted in and out of Mauricio Pochettino’s starting XI. He was ready to leave in August, with several clubs from the Bundesliga interested in him, but Pochettino said no.



The Olympic heartbreak served to fire the storyline about Son’s military service which, according to South Korean law, all able-bodied males must begin before they turn 28 and which lasts for 21 months. Had South Korea won a medal of any colour in Rio, the players would have been excused the mandatory tour.



Instead the clock is ticking for Son, although he could yet gain exemption if he was to help his country win gold at the 2018 Asian Games. Tottenham have shut down questions on the subject and it has been possible to detect a nervousness about it from their side. However, it is understood, a solution is likely to be found that will not disrupt Son’s football career. It could involve his service being postponed.

Son did not go through pre-season at Tottenham last year – which is sometimes forgotten – as he joined them at the end of August, and he has benefited from working under Pochettino this time out. It was tougher than anything he had experienced in Germany; physically, he feels stronger. Moreover, the four matches he played at the Olympics helped him in terms of sharpness.

The Leverkusen tie promises to stir the emotions. Son can remind the club of his quality.