Son Heung-Min to be offered new Tottenham contract that could last through 2026

A couple of weeks back, rumors were swirling that Tottenham Hotspur were keen to offer Son Heung-Min a new contract to keep him around as long as possible. Those rumors haven’t changed, exactly — a new article in The Guardian by Fabrizio Romano and Ed Aarons suggests that talks are said to be opening on this very subject “soon” — but now we at least have a few more details.

According to Aarons and Romano, Sonny has been attracting transfer attention from “some of the biggest clubs in Europe” over the past couple of seasons, but nobody has submitted a bid yet, probably because they know that the odds of Spurs selling him for anything less than a ludicrous amount of money are slim to none. Even so, that’s been part of the impetus for offering Sonny a new deal: not only is he good enough that he’s (finally) getting interest, but Spurs want to keep him at Tottenham and happy with his pay. Sonny’s currently making £140k/wk on his last contract, which expires in 2023.

So while negotiations aren’t yet underway, Spurs are said to want to offer Sonny a new contract through 2025 or 2026 at £200k/wk, which would put him at the top of Spurs’ pay scale along with Harry Kane and Tanguy Ndombele. A contract through 2026 would also keep him in theory a Tottenham player until he’s 34 years old... which is getting up there in years for a fast attacker like Son. In reality a long-term contract just makes it that much less likely that Spurs will be put over a barrel if they ever do decide it’s time for Sonny to move on, but if he doesn’t leave that sure seems like a lot of money to pay for a guy who’s probably going to be in his declining years.

But maybe that’s okay — it’s Sonny, after all, and this isn’t anywhere close to a done deal. Son certainly deserves to get a pay raise commensurate with what he has brought to the team the past few seasons. And even if he signs an extension and is not playing scintillating football at age 34, he still lights up a room with his smile. You can’t put a price on that, really.