Son Heung-min has basically been a very unexpected revelation since he arrived at Tottenham Hotspur and White Hart Lane back in August 2015 from German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.
The now 30-year-old South Korean international became the most expensive Asian player in history when Spurs signed him for £22 million, and since moving to London he is now the top Asian goalscorer in both Premier League and Champions League history and has topped Cha Bum-Kun's record as the highest scoring Korean in European competition.
His achievements do not end there, in 2019 he became the second Asian after Park Ji-Sung to reach and start in a Champions League Final and in 2021/22 he shared the Premier League Golden Boot award with Mohamed Salah after they both notched up 23 goals - again the first Asian to win it. That is not even dipping into his World Cup records, joint top scoring with the aforementioned Park Ji-Sung and Ahn Jung-hwan, or the fact he is a Gold medal winner at the Asian Games. He also bizarrely completed National Service the other year. You would probably find good odds on him extending that success on the likes of promoguy.us.
It is quite clear why he is such a role model in his homeland, and he even received the Cheongnyong Medal (the highest order of merit for achievement in sport that can be awarded to a South Korean citizen) and when you look at his career stats - 104 caps for his country with 35 goals, and 245 Premier League appearances for Spurs with a return of 96 goals - such an acknowledgement and honour make perfect sense and he even boasts a Puskas Award and has been named in the Professional Footballers Association's Team of the Year.
Sadly, Sonny (as he is affectionately known by some quarters of the fanbase) has had a really poor and totally uncharacteristic start to the 2022/23 campaign, yet he has still contributed five goals and two assists in 18 starts and one substitute showing. That is poor by his standards though, so it shows how high he has set those standards in previous years.
As we hit November and the inevitably daftly organised winter break to accommodate a World Cup few people want out in Qatar, whilst in some senses the season has now got worse for the Tottenham forward, he will also be counting quite a few blessings on a domestic club front.
Following Tottenham's Champions League victory over French side Marseille on Tuesday evening, it has now been confirmed that the player was substituted in the 29th minute having suffered a fracture around his left eye. The 30-year-old is now set to undergo surgery to correct the problem, but it obviously means he is going to miss a number of domestic games going forward, and he is naturally now a doubt for South Korea's World Cup campaign.
The club themselves have not stated when the surgery will take place, nor have they yet put a timescale on a full recovery, but Spurs fans will be hoping that if he does miss the World Cup, at least that is dead time on a domestic front so he should not miss quite as many league clashes as he otherwise would.
Given his form this year and generally how much football Son Heung-Min tends to play during a year, an enforced break could well serve to bring him back to his best.
