China's state-run Xinhua News Agency featured an article about Son Heung-min, who became the joint top scorer in the English Premier League (EPL) on the 23rd.
In an article titled 'What implications do Asian players have for us to shine in the European football world', Heung-Min Son's achievements and success factors were highlighted.
He said that it was the first time for an Asian player to win the EPL Golden Boot, and he highlighted the fact that co-scorer Salah of Liverpool scored five goals from a penalty while Heung-Min Son scored 23 goals only from a field goal without a penalty kick.
Heung-Min Son's golden boot had no choice but to shine even more.
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Xinhua News illuminates the success story of Son Heung-min... "Heaven helps those who help themselves"
Xinhua News Agency cited hard work as a factor in Son's success.
"He tried for a minute on the pitch and 10 years off the field," he said.
Referring to the fact that Son Heung-min received basic and physical strength training from his father, Son Woong-jeong when he was young, he said that the outstanding basic and physical strength he has now was created at this time.
Xinhua also compared Son Heung-min to Elise from Honduras.
The Korean national football team, led by Son Heung-min, lost 1-0 to Honduras in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Rio Olympics, and it was Ellis who scored the winning goal at that time.
Son Heung-min was so-called 'bed soccer' from Honduras, who scored the first goal, and cried after the game.
Xinhua News Agency said that Son Heung-min is now the co-winner of the Golden Boot, but Elise is buried in the French league.
Heung-Min Son maintained his skills for a long time and shined in a high-level league, becoming 'Asia's eldest brother' and 'Asia's number one man'.
Heung-Min Son's story tells us (China) that 'Heaven helps those who help themselves'.
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Chinese netizen "Son Heung-min shows Asian potential"... It's hard to find love
Other Chinese media have also helped.
Phoenix Mang published an article titled 'Heung-Min Son, the light of Asia, how Koreans conquered the world'.
Heung-Min Son's father's 'strict' training method was described in detail.
He practiced shooting 500 times with the left foot and 500 times with the right foot every day, and even introduced an anecdote that he had to shoot commercials in a short time to save training time.
Heung-min Son's ability to quickly learn German in the German league and English in the EPL was also analyzed as the secret to easily adapting to European football.
He concluded the article with the words "Practice, humility and confidence are the shortcuts to becoming number one in Asia."
The Chinese newspaper also wrote, "Heung-Min Son made a new football history," and Xiao Xiang-Tianbao said, "Heung-Min Son scored 12 goals with his left foot and 11 with his right foot, and became the top scorer in EPL history without a penalty kick in one season. I became the first player.”
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The news of Son Heung-min's top scorer became a topic of discussion on Chinese social media.
On Weibo, China's largest SNS, the hashtags #Heung-Min Son Salah EPL joint scorer # and #Heung-Min Son EPL Golden Boot history creation # were uploaded, and as of the afternoon of the 24th, their views were 100 million and 17 million, respectively. is recording.
The comments are almost like compliments.
"I got the golden boot without a penalty goal", "Heung-Min Son did really well this season", "Shows Asian potential", "Heung-Min Son puts the team ahead of the individual", "I like him when he scores a goal I cried" and so on.
It is hard to find anti-Korean sentiments as much as in the articles related to Son Heung-min.
China "The birthplace of soccer is China"... Xi Jinping's 'soccer play'
The Chinese love for soccer is unusual.
Of the 1.6 billion football fans worldwide, more than 300 million are Chinese.
Even if your own team did not qualify for the finals, you can easily find enthusiastic Chinese people in the streets and pubs during the World Cup.
As a reflection of this, China took the top spot in advertising expenditures by country for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Advertising expenses of Chinese companies accounted for 35% of the total advertising expenditures for the World Cup in Russia, which amounts to 105 trillion won in Korean money.
There are several analyzes of the Chinese like to play soccer.
The Chinese believe that the birthplace of football is China.
There is a record that Qi played a ball kick (chukkuk) similar to soccer in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, and this is regarded as the origin of soccer.
Of course, the birthplace of modern football is clearly England, but in 2004, the International Football Federation (FIFA) said, "I agree that football originated in China," and the Chinese take pride in their birthplace.
Here, President Xi Jinping, who is known as a 'soccer fanatic', put forward 'playing soccer', which also fueled the enthusiasm.
During his last visit to England in 2015, Xi also looked for a football club, where he announced an ambitious plan to develop the Chinese national football team to a world-class level by 2050.
More than 20,000 elementary and junior high schools have been designated as soccer vocational schools, and more than 70,000 soccer fields have been built and invested in soccer.
On the other hand, there are analyzes that reflect the characteristics of Chinese people who like to bet.
In China, sites that bet not only on their own soccer matches but also on the results of soccer matches around the world, including Europe, are popular.
Money comes and goes beyond simple wins and losses, even on specific outcomes such as the difference in goals and even which team scores the first goal.
China's men's national team performance is poor... “Do not covet fish, but cast your net first.”
The problem is that the men's soccer team is not responding properly to such public interest and support.
The Chinese national football team failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after losing 1-3 in the match against Vietnam in February.
The 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup was the only time the Chinese men's team made it to the World Cup finals, so their performance on the international stage is so poor.
On the other hand, the women's soccer team is at the top of the world, winning the Asian Cup.
Chinese football fans were outraged when the men's national team lost to Vietnam, saying, "Don't come back," and when the women's team won, they ridiculed them, "Keep out the men's team."
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Xinhua News Agency said Son's success could offer implications for Chinese football in trouble.
'It is better to retreat and cast a net than to go to the pond and covet the fish'.
This is the conclusion reached by Xinhua News Agency.
It means you have to start over from the ground up and not be greedy for immediate results.
He said that Chinese football can be transformed only by enduring the pain even if it suffers from coldness in the medium and short term by steadily implementing the 'Chinese football reform and development plan'.
Taking the lesson from Heung-Min Son's success, he said that young Chinese players should advance to big stages such as Europe early and start with third or fourth-class clubs.
The envy of 1.4 billion people and the late regret for Son Heung-min are read.
It remains to be seen whether Son's success will affect Chinese football as well.