Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min has voiced strong determination to capture the UEFA Europa League title as his team prepares to face Manchester United in the final. The highly anticipated match will take place at Estadio San Mamés in Bilbao, Spain, at 4 a.m. KST on May 22. The winner will secure a berth in next season’s UEFA Champions League and receive €6 million (approximately 9.4 billion KRW) in prize money.For Son, the final represents a pivotal moment in his 15-year professional career. Since making his debut with Hamburg SV in 2010, he has yet to win a major European trophy. After joining Tottenham in 2015, he reached the finals of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League and the 2020–21 EFL Cup, only to finish runner-up to Liverpool and Manchester City, respectively.In an interview with UEFA ahead of the match, Son reflected on those past disappointments. “It’s very painful to see the other team holding the trophy,” he said. “We definitely learned something from that defeat instead of just being disappointed, so we’ll go into this final with a stronger mindset.”Son, who arrived in Bilbao on Tuesday with his teammates, becomes the fourth South Korean to play in a UEFA Cup or Europa League final. Legendary forward Cha Bum-kun won the UEFA Cup twice—once with Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1979–80 season and again with Bayer Leverkusen in 1987–88.Tottenham is aiming to end a 17-year trophy drought, having last lifted silverware in the 2007–08 EFL Cup. The club has previously won the Europa League—then known as the UEFA Cup—twice, in the 1971–72 and 1983–84 seasons.Manchester United, meanwhile, will look to claim their second Europa League title in eight years. Their last triumph came in the 2016–17 season under then-manager José Mourinho.
Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com
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