Learn English Through Football Podcast: Son Heung-min in Numbers

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Learn English Through Football Podcast: Son Heung-min in Numbers

In this week’s football-language podcast we look back at some of the key numbers from the Tottenham career of Son Heung-min after he said he was leaving the club. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com

Hello

DF: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast.

DF: Hello everyone and welcome to the show for fans of football who want to improve their English. My name is Damian and I am based in London where the weather is cool and very pleasant. I don’t think the weather is like that in Tokyo, Japan where of course the other member of the Learn English through Football Podcast team, Damon, is living. I think it is really hot at the moment. How about you, what’s the weather like where you are?

It has been a while since I have been on the podcast – I have been taking a little break. And I think Damon has mentioned this, we have had one or two difficulties with our hosting over the last couple of months. But of course that doesn’t mean the football language has stopped; Damon has been posting some great football-language podcasts over the past couple of weeks. Last week he looked at the phrase ‘to retain’ after the Lionesses won their second European Championship title in a row – they won it again. Before that, he also looked at the phrases, ‘to claw away‘ – he was talking about a great save from the German goalkeeper. And also ‘to find joy‘ and he looked at the different meanings of the word ‘draw‘.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Spanish)

Close season & Pre-season

DF: Now in Europe we are moving away from the close season, which is when teams take a break from football – players (and fans!) are on holidays and we are now very much into the pre-season. This is when teams start to prepare for the new or upcoming season – the prefix ‘pre’ means before something happens; so pre-season is the time before the new season begins. So, teams are currently doing some pre-season training and playing some pre-season friendlies to try and get fit.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Greek)

DF: Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster and that message was in Greek. And we are going to have some more stingers or messages throughout the show in different languages; so try and recognise some of them if you can. Don’t worry if you don’t know them, we’ll give you the answers at the end of the show. And here’s another one for you and I will give you a clue, this language is spoken in Asia.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Japanese) 

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Son Heung-min (in Numbers)

DF: Now, many of you will know that the Korean National Team captain, Son Heung-min, announced this week that he was leaving Tottenham to go and play in Los Angeles. So, in this section we will look at the impact that Sonny has had on Spurs by looking at some important numbers.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Korean)

10

DF: Well, Son Heung-min joined Tottenham ten years ago from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen. I remember his first game for Tottenham when he scored the winner against Crystal Palace and I thought he looked like a good player but I never imagined that he would be such a huge player for Spurs over a long period of time!

454

He played 454 times for the club in all competitions – that means he has 454 appearances – and he is sixth on the all-time appearance list for the club. He played 333 times for Spurs in the Premier League.

173

Son scored 173 times for Tottenham which means he is fifth on the list of all-time scorers for the club behind superstars Jimmy Greaves and Harry Kane. He was the Golden Boot winner in the 2021-22 season after scoring 23 goals. Many of his goals were from outside the box either driven in with his left or curled in with his right. He also won the Puskás Award for the best goal of the year for his amazing solo goal against Burnley back in 2020 – it was so good that his then manager Jose Mourinho called him ‘Sonaldo’!

101

Now, Sonny was also known for his selfless team play – he always helped his team mates. And he provided lots of assists: 101 of them to be precise! He also has the most goal combinations along with Harry Kane in the Premier League; on 47 occasions they combined to score. What a great pair they were!

16

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Now, Son was the captain of Tottenham in his final two years and in his last official match for the club, that was the final of the Europa League, he came off the bench in Bilbao to help the team win their first trophy in 16 years when they defeated Manchester United 1-0. The fact that he stayed at the club in order to win a trophy made the Tottenham fans love the Korean superstar even more and he will leave the club as a legend!

 Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Italian)

Contact

DB: Right, remember to contact us via email if you have any questions about the language of football or if you have some feedback on our podcast. Check out our website and explore our Football Language Forum, where you can ask and answer questions about all kinds of football language. There is also our huge glossary of football terms, with hundreds of expressions, phrases, and clichés about the beautiful game.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Vietnamese)

Goodbye

DF:  Yes, you are listening to Languagecaster and that message, or stinger, was in Vietnamese. How about the other ones? Did you guess the languages? Let’s see. We had Spanish, Greek, Japanese and Korean (of course!) followed by Italian and finally Vietnamese. Well done if you recognised any of those and of course if you’d like to send on another stinger in your own language we’d love to hear from you – just tell us that, ‘You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast’ in any language that you know.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (from a Besiktas fan)

DF: So, on today’s show we looked at the career of Tottenham legend Son Heung-min through some key numbers. We looked at the word ‘appearances‘ to describe how many times a player plays for a club. We also explained the Puskás Award which is for the best goal scored in a year, while we also looked at the phrases, ‘close season‘ and ‘pre-season‘. Let us know if you hear any of the phrases this week or if you have similar expressions in another language that you know.

DF: Enjoy all the football this week but we are still in the pre-season stage here in the UK. But we’ll see you again soon with more football language. Bye bye!

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