"I'm probably saving goals for the World Cup." Son Heung-min said it as a joke, but given the scrutiny he's been under this season, there's real weight behind it.
The South Korea captain arrives at his fourth World Cup needing just one goal to become his country's all-time leading scorer at the tournament. He's currently on three — level with Ahn Jung-hwan and Park Ji-sung — having scored on debut in Brazil 2014 and twice more in Russia 2018. The record is right there. Son's not chasing it.
"If I put the team above all else and worry about how I can best help the team first, then goals will naturally follow," he told reporters at South Korea's training camp in Herriman, Utah. "That's how I've been playing my whole career, and that mindset won't change."
The elephant in the room: Son hasn't scored in MLS yet
The lack of league goals this season is a legitimate talking point. At 33, playing for LAFC after leaving Tottenham, Son has yet to find the net in MLS regular season football across 13 matches. His only two goals in all competitions have come in the Concacaf Champions Cup — one in February, one in April. That's a thin return for a player of his calibre.
The counter-argument: he leads the MLS assist charts with nine, tied for the league lead. The creativity is still there. The finishing touch has gone temporarily quiet.
Whether that drought carries into a World Cup is the real question — and it matters beyond sentiment. South Korea reached the round of 16 in Qatar and want to go further. Son's goals were a key part of getting there. If he turns up in the group stage misfiring, Korea's knockout ambitions take a serious hit, and anyone backing them deep into the tournament should factor that form in now.
Son still has the numbers to back his standing
The Premier League Golden Boot in 2021-22. Fifty-four international goals, second only to Cha Bum-kun in South Korean history, just four behind the all-time record. These aren't the stats of a player whose best days are behind him — they're the stats of a player in a dry patch at 33, which is a very different thing.
Son was characteristically clear-eyed about where his focus sits heading into the summer. "We have to know where our teammates are with our eyes closed," he said. "Rather than talking about the outcome, it's important to do our best each and every day."
The World Cup record will come if it comes. He's not wrong that a player of his quality usually finds a goal when the stakes are highest. But South Korea will need more than philosophy to advance — they'll need the version of Son that turns up in knockout football, not the one who's been anonymous in California on Saturday afternoons.
