Tottenham’s Son Heung-min reveals Rodrigo Bentancur’s emotional apology after controversial comments

Son Heung-min reassured fans that there is no bad blood between him and Tottenham Hotspur teammate Rodrigo Bentancur, despite the Uruguayan being charged with misconduct by the Football Association (FA) for using insulting language towards him during a TV interview.

Bentancur could face a lengthy FA ban after the host of Canal 10 show Por La Camiseta asked him in June for a Tottenham shirt, to which the midfielder replied “Sonny’s? It could be Sonny’s cousin too as they all look the same.”

Speaking ahead of Tottenham’s opening Europa League clash with Qarabag on Sept 26, the South Korea and Spurs captain said: “I love Rodrigo. I love him. We’ve had a lot of good memories.

“He knew and he apologised straight afterwards... He sent me a long text and you could tell it was from his heart.

“He then saw me at training and he was almost crying. He felt really sorry. We’re all human and we make mistakes. I love Rodrigo and we move on together as a brother.”

Son has scored 164 goals in 414 appearances since joining the club in 2015 and his contract is due to expire at the end of the current campaign.

The 32-year-old said he remains focused on ending Tottenham’s long wait for silverware dating back to 2008.

“At this age every second is like a goal, especially this season we are in a lot of competitions, it feels like I am taking even more care on this,” Son said.

“I am fully focused on this year and just want to win something that everyone at the club deserves. In the future you never know what will happen, but I will give everything for this club because it’s been 10 years I give everything.”

Spurs will be desperate to end their 17-year wait for a major trophy and will see the new Europa League, which will not feature any teams dropping down from the Champions League like in previous seasons, as a golden opportunity.

Said manager Ange Postecoglou: “In the old format there were some dead rubber games because teams knew who were going through. This way there could be more in games and eight different teams with eight different styles.

“The main things is that we’re in it... The worst thing was sitting around watching other teams (last season). It didn’t sit well with me.”

Across north London, Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has given up hope of buying Spurs’ local rivals Arsenal after their value shot up while he was building the continent’s largest oil refinery.

The billionaire, an ardent fan of the Gunners, said in 2019 he would consider buying Arsenal after completing his US$20 billion (S$25.7 billion) 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery outside Lagos, Nigeria.

“I regret not buying it before but my money was needed in completing my project then,” the tycoon said in an interview on Bloomberg Television in New York on Sept 23.

“I don’t have that kind of excess liquidity to go and buy a club for US$4 billion,” which he suggested was about Arsenal’s current valuation, adding that he would have bought it for US$2 billion a few years ago.

Arsenal are owned by American billionaire Stan Kroenke, whose son Josh takes an active role in the club. There is no suggestion that Kroenke would sell the club. In 2021, Spotify founder Daniel Ek – also an Arsenal fan – said he had an offer rejected. , BLOOMBERG