Despite that this has been Son’s most prolific season in front of goal in the English Premier League since arriving from German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen in 2015.

Son, 28, has scored a career best 22 times in the all competitions this season He has hit a career-high 17 in the league and laid on 10 goals for teammates, while he and Harry Kane set a record for the most goals created and scored by a duo, surpassing Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.

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“Son has another chance to shine at the rescheduled Tokyo Games this summer” they added.

South Korea have been drawn with a kind group in the form of New Zealand, Honduras and Romania. The Koreans have unfinished business with Honduras. It was the Central Americans that knocked South Korea – featuring an over-age Son among them – out of the Rio 2016 Games.

Son was left in tears after the 1-0 defeat in the quarter-finals in Belo Horizonte. His South Korea coach Shin Tae-yong said that Son “cried all day long” and “did not even eat after the shock defeat”.

While Son missed several chances, the team manager Uli Stielike did not blame the star, saying their loss “wasn’t entirely Son’s fault”. He had played well in their earlier games, scoring in the opening 8-0 win over Fiji and in their 3-3 draw with Germany as they progressed from the group stage.

“After the Olympics I was very upset. I was really down, because I played for my country and I wanted to get some medals for my country,” Son said in September 2016, after starring for Spurs in the Uefa Champions League away to CSKA Moscow.

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Two years later he achieved his ambition as a key part of the team that won gold at the 2018 Asian Games.

Rio was his only taste of the Olympics so far as he ruled himself out of the London 2012 Games, where the team would win bronze.

“In Korea, an Olympic appearance has a special meaning, but I want to speed up for Hamburg,” a 19-year-old Son said in 2012 after pulling out to concentrate on his club career at the Bundesliga side.

Having missed out on London 2012 and the disappointment of Rio, will Son return for one more shot at Olympic gold?

It seems that the fans and coaches would like to call on their most famous son.

South Korea coach Kim Hak-beom-ho submitted a 50-player list to the Korea Sports Association and the ministry of culture, sports and tourism at the end of April. The list has not been published in full.

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Coach Kim confirmed that Son was on the longlist in a press conference at the Korean FA training centre, saying that he has 11 players for the wild card (over-23) spots “including Son Heung-min” to cover all positions.

Kim also said that now the groups have been drawn he and his coaches have begun planning.

“The coaching staff is analysing the opposing team. I am going to prepare for the opposing team in June. I’ll be thinking about where to use the wild card. The list of 50 people was handed over to the Korea Sports Association.

One complicating factor is that players will have to be vaccinated, with domestic-based players getting theirs this month, though it is unclear where and when overseas players will receive vaccines.

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The English Premier League season does not finish for Spurs until May 23, when they travel to Leicester City, and then there is also the issue of quarantine to enter the country ahead of training camp in June.

Another issue, as hinted at by Kim in his press conference, is that the South Korea national team have delayed Fifa World Cup qualifiers for Qatar 2022 in June. They are set to play Turkmenistan on June 3, before games against Sri Lanka and Lebanon.

“There are so few entries for 18 people, so you have to worry about it,” Kim told the media. “It is my honest heart that I want to politely ask [national team coach Paulo] Bento. I can’t help it if it’s an irreplaceable player like Son Heung-min, but I’m going to ask because there will be a lot of European-based players in national team A and there will be substitutes. ”

Son will surely be a serious consideration for South Korea as they look to win a first gold medal in men’s football. Coach Kim has hinted at his intentions and that could be bad news for the start of Spurs’ 2021-22 season.

Then again with Son linked to clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester United amid stalled contract extension talks, his Olympics might not be their concern.