The unprovoked verbal abuse was not unexpected when it happened. I had spent an hour outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, talking to Asian fans who had come to see their club play. Many had been introduced to Spurs through Son Heung-min, the beloved South Korean superstar.
When Son was appointed captain in 2023 he became the first Asian player to lead a Premier League team, a boost not only for his already significant profile but that of Tottenham. For more than a decade, he brought a flow of Asian fans to Spurs matches. And despite his departure this summer for Los Angeles FC, they are still coming.
They will be Spurs supporters for life, says Sun Thaicharoenporn, a 22-year-old Singaporean of Thai heritage who lives in London. He and his girlfriend, Ang Ang, turned up for the game against Aston Villa this month decked out in club scarves and caps. They flashed big smiles and happily posed when we took their photos outside the stadium. And then a Villa fan, in a group of men, interrupted. “Fuck Tottenham,” he yelled, leaning into their faces.
Sun and Ang Ang blanched, but brushed it off. But the question lingered, unspoken. Would he have done that to other Tottenham fans? Would he have so confidently targeted a group of white men wearing Spurs colours, not Asian fans, stereotyped as more passive and timid, and maligned at times even by other Spurs fans online for being on the bandwagon, for not being “true” fans.
Son Heung-min became the first Asian player to captain a Premier League side, and finally got his hands on a trophy when Spurs won the Europa League in May. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA
Who gets to be a fan in English football, to fully participate in club culture, to feel they are part of a club? Son made a lot of people feel they could. When Sun moved to London three years ago for university, he told his girlfriend he wanted them to go to football and get behind a club, to participate in English culture and help them “integrate”. Tottenham were the clear choice. He had been following the team casually for years because of Son. “When I was in middle school he was the main Asian representation in the Premier League,” he says. Sun’s family were Liverpool or Manchester United fans. “I’m the black sheep,” he says wryly, “But I felt like I wanted to support a team which represented that kind of multi-diversity.”
To him Son’s presence in the Spurs team, his selection as captain, made him feel Tottenham were a more tolerant, open club than others. “As an Asian person coming to the UK, you know you’re a minority, and Son’s presence, his leadership, sort of signifies that this club at least knows how to handle multi-diversity and they want to embrace that. So I feeI more safe going to the stadium and being part of the fans, being part of the club.”
Sun also appreciated the “Asian values” Son displayed at Tottenham: his respectful and humble character, grace in leadership and politeness on the field. “A lot of the time you’d see him displaying a gesture, like a bow,” he says. “For example, after he won the Europa League he bowed to the fans.” The fact that Son was such a brilliant footballer made him even easier to get behind.
Junoh Yoon and Sehyun are South Koreans studying in Ireland, and started to follow Spurs after Son’s arrival at the club. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian
Son is a “cultural touchstone” for Koreans around the world, according to the New Yorkers Mike and Paul Chung. The brothers made a Spurs game a key part of their itinerary when they flew to London and Mike wore Son’s No 7 shirt for the occasion. “He validates the idea that a Korean can be one of the best players for the most popular sport in the world,” says Mike. Son remains an intrinsic part of Tottenham, the brothers say.
“He is the best Asian player in England’s football history, so as a Japanese person I’m proud,” says Yusuke Sasaki, a casual spectator for the Villa game. Stat-obsessed Ko Morita, on holiday from Thailand, rattled off Real Madrid as his favourite team, but when asked about Son, the 11-year-old says: “Son Heung-min? He’s my boy! He’s so good! He and Harry Kane were the best strikers ever … for Tottenham at least, although to me Son is more like a left-winger.”
The support that Son, and by association Tottenham and the Premier League, received in and from Asia over the past decade was massive, and measurably so. Visitors spent their dollars and stall owners around the stadium still report selling out Son scarves after a big game.
South Korean students Junoh Yoon and Seynuh, studying in Ireland, flew over for the Villa match despite not having tickets. They just wanted to soak up the atmosphere and come to the stadium for the first time. “I’m a fan of the Spurs because of Son,” says Junoh. “But I’m a fan of the whole team. I’ve followed them for eight years now.”
Son was such a well-liked player that he didn’t cop much hate from opposition supporters. But resentment among some Spurs fans at ticket prices going up, the difficulty of procuring them and their team being regarded as a tourist attraction affects Asian fans. Austen Chan, who grew up “religiously” watching Tottenham in Hong Kong, says he has seen a lot of such abuse “not so much in person at the games but online”. He has seen accusations that Korean fans who fly in for the games are only there for Son, taking up the spots of so-called “legitimate” fans. And as an Asian fan, he has felt uncomfortable scrutiny.
Austen Chan and Isabel Cheung are from Hong Kong. Austen, 21, says he grew up ‘religiously’ supporting Spurs. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian
Austen moved to London last year to study and has attended three games since, including the Villa match. But he doesn’t feel any “closer” to the team because of it. “I don’t think being from a different part of the world makes you any less of a Tottenham fan,” he says. “I may not have been able to go to games while I was in high school because I just was not in the same place, obviously. But I think the fact that I was willing to stay up till those early hours to watch the games shows that I’m just as much of a fan as any other person.”
The harassment Sun and Ang Ang faced before kick-off was not the first such encounter, which he believes is fuelled in part because of his race. But he has also had positive experiences: on the way to the first game he took Ang Ang to last year, a Europa League encounter, they were approached by a group of older fans on the train “probably because we were Asian and looked relatively young. They asked us whether it was our first game watching the Spurs at a stadium and we exchanged our points of view on the legacy of the club. They also told us about how long they had been supporting Spurs and it felt like they were trying to welcome me and introduce me to a really big part of their life.”
