Obviously Mauricio Pochettino is well aware how good Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min is.
After all, it was the Argentine manager who signed Son from Bayer Leverkusen for Spurs way back in 2015 for £22 million [The Guardian].
Since then, the South Korea international has emerged as one of the Premier League’s finest players and his shared Golden Boot during the 2021-22 Premier League campaign illustrates as much.
However, even Pochettino looked stunned by his former player’s heroics on Friday evening.
Son helped South Korea progress into the last 16 of the World Cup with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Portugal in Qatar.
It was Hwang Hee-chan of Wolves who scored the winner in stoppage time, but it was the Tottenham player’s eye-of-a-needle assist which has grabbed headlines.
Pochettino was working as a pundit on BBC and Rio Ferdinand tweeted behind-the-scenes footage of the moment the Asian outfit went ahead.
And the former Lilywhites boss celebrated like it was a Spurs goal and he was still manager, muttering, ‘Come on! Oh my goodness’ in disbelief over Son’s creativity.
Tottenham supporters will be warmed by the footage, no doubt.
Given Pochettino’s standing within the North London outfit, having elevated them during his five-year spell, most of the fanbase will love the South American tactician and to see him basking in his former player’s glory was a nice touch.
Son will now gear up for a round-of-16 encounter against Brazil on Monday.
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