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The race for the PFA Player of the Year award has been depicted as a foregone conclusion. A clear favourite has been established and all alternative candidates appear to have been cast into the shadows of Virgil van Dijk.
BT Sport commentator and ESPN writer, Ian Darke, has boldly claimed that Liverpool’s defensive colossus deserves the reward irrespective of how the Premier League title race unfolds.
Similar sentiments have been offered by his Liverpool teammate, Andrew Robertson, and Anfield legend, Jamie Carragher, who claimed Van Dijk “looks like a man playing in a kids’ game” after the Reds drew 0-0 with Everton at Goodison Park earlier this month.
With so many big names backing the £75million signing to the tilt, it seems pointless to even build a case for an alternative winner; that would be about as meaningful as Huddersfield’s endeavour to remain in the top-flight this season.
But in the midst of the Van Dijk mania there is a humble outside contender who is far more deserving of the award, Son Heung-min.
Son has been dubbed as ‘a leading Premier League star’ by Sky Sports, but he is so, so much more than that. No player in the league has travelled such immense distances and thrived in season-defining circumstances while consistently remaining infectiously likeable and exuberant in the public eye.
His season started in the most unprecedented of circumstances. Mauricio Pochettino offered his blessing as Son jetted off to Indonesia for the Asian Games knowing that anything less than a gold medal would leave him facing two years of mandatory military service.
Like all great champions, Son, who captained South Korea at the games, excelled under life-changing circumstances and led his side to the gold medal, earning him exemption from military service. The 2-1 final victory over Japan brought Son to tears in a state of sheer cathartic relief. This achievement, though, merely represented the beginning of one of the most compelling individual stories that the Premier League has ever witnessed.
Emotional and physical fatigue excused an indifferent spell of form shortly after Son’s triumph in Indonesia, but his first league goal of the season against Chelsea at the end of November triggered a significant upturn.
The magnificent solo effort against the Blues included, Son went on to notch eight goals and provide five assists in his next ten league appearances, enabling Spurs to storm a march on their pace-setting title-rivals Liverpool and Manchester City.
But international duty once again beckoned in January. Fortunately for Spurs his trip to the Asia Cup was short-lived as the hotly-fancied South Korean side crashed out at the quarter-final stage.
Back to north London he went, with the mammoth challenge of filling the void left by injured Harry Kane lying ahead. Responsibility accepted. Son characterised everything that was brilliant about Spurs in the absence of their talisman-in-chief, scoring late goals against Watford and Newcastle to keep the league’s dark horses in the mix.
Spurs have stayed true to ‘Spursy’ form thereafter and faded into insignificance quicker than Portsmouth can say Sunderland, but without Son they would be lagging desperately behind in the race for elite European football.
And then there’s his display against Borussia Dortmund in the last-sixteen of the Champions League, in which he notched the momentum-shifting winner to catalyse a second-half performance for the ages.
Jan Vertonghen expertly delivered the ball on a silver platter, the earth stood still as Son levitated in the air, and the tectonic plates of Wembley shattered as he planted the ball into the top corner. Only the elite players in world football maintain their composure in moments of that magnitude.
Admittedly, his performances have dipped since Kane returned from injury and familiar trends of short-term thinking embedded at the core of the football media have extinguished his once stark claims of winning the PFA award. But, while the media are insistently championing Van Dijk and neglecting outside contenders, Son’s season merits a broader analysis.
This is a man who has conquered adversity, competently deputised for one of the best strikers in Premier League and England history, scored priceless goals when Tottenham needed it most, and flourished under the immense physical strain which thousands of miles of travelling naturally induce.
Through all of this Son has remained incredibly down-to-earth and humble in-front of the media and an emblem of professionalism in Lilywhite.
Son is a credit to the game and a role model for every aspiring young footballer in a sport which is becoming increasingly polluted by the greed and extravagance of a multi-billion pound industry.
Van Dijk is no doubt a worthy winner, but it would be criminal shame for Son to be overlooked at the end of his unparalleled whirlwind season.