Son Heung-min key as Tottenham eye £38m off-pitch windfall

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Tottenham are arguably the best in the world at securing maxim return on their investments and asset, and a new Premier League-wide campaign could prove lucrative for the club.

Spurs chairman and co-owner Daniel Levy is known for driving a hard bargain and Spurs are one of the most efficiently run clubs around.

That philosophy runs through recruitment and the commercial team, who have helped Spurs achieve annual income from sponsorship and merchandise of £228m.

One market the commercial department have zeroed in on is South Korea and, more broadly, East Asia, where the club are currently on tour.

The club have become the most followed club in South Korea, chiefly because of captain and club legend Son Heung-min, who also skippers the South Korea national team.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has become a tourism destination for South Korean football fans.

As well as being a Spurs great, it is hard to quantify the commercial value of Son to Tottenham – but his pull is certainly worth millions every season.

Now, the 32-year-old could deliver another lucrative benefit – albeit indirectly .

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Son Heung-min playing key role in commercial campaigns

Son, who scored twice in Spurs’ 4-3 win over a K League all-star side earlier this week, is used to being front and centre of Spurs’ sponsorship drives.

For example, he has become a brand ambassador for the luggage brand Tumi, who extended their commercial partnership with Spurs earlier this summer.

Similarly, Son has been used as the face of a number of Premier League initiatives – such as one to discourage TV piracy in East Asia in 2020.

Now, the Premier League is launching a fresh anti-piracy campaign, which it has kickstarted with a letter to social media platform X.

As relayed by Associated Press, the Premier League are one of a number of signatories for the letter, which slates X’s handling of pirated material.

It has been estimated that each Premier League match is missing out on £1m in sponsorship value due to pirate activity, which is £38m to clubs like Spurs when extrapolated over the course of a season.

It is likely that Son, as the biggest Premier League name in the region where illegal streams most often originate, will feature heavily if the league are pushing back against piracy again.

TBR Analysis: How much is Son worth to Spurs?

Son is into the final year of his contract, although the club is believed to have the option to trigger a one-year extension.

But while a player’s record on the pitch and the time remaining on his deal is enough to determine the value of most players, Son’s wider benefits to the club make him uniquely valuable.

Spurs have signed partnerships with a number of South Korean companies or firms looking to break into that market in recent years, and those would not have happened without him.

The commercial impact of players from certain territories can sometimes be overstated, but not in Son’s case.

But fandom in South Korea is fluid and while Spurs will undoubtedly have built up some brand loyalty in the region, supporter churn will be an issue when he does eventually leave.

That is likely one of the reasons that Spurs have Yan Min-Hyeok, who, aside from being a talented youngster, also has the benefits of retaining South Korea’s interest in the club.