Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min is in talks with the club over a new contract, according to a report.
With Hugo Lloris out of the first-team picture and Harry Kane leaving for Bayern Munich, the South Korea skipper was bestowed with the armband this summer by Ange Postecoglou.
Son failed to hit his previous heights in the 2022-23 season, but he rediscovered his goalscoring touch with a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Burnley before the international break.
The 31-year-old has failed to register a goal or assist in Spurs' other four Premier League matches so far this season, but his efforts have been crucial in Tottenham's bright start to the campaign.
Son only penned a contract extension back in 2021, and those terms will not expire until the end of the 2024-25 season, but 90min claims that the club want to prolong his stay.
Tottenham are supposedly optimistic of agreeing a new long-term deal with the attacker by Christmas, but in the best-case scenario, a renewal could be wrapped up in a number of weeks.
The Lilywhites apparently had intentions of extending Son's deal earlier this year, but the club wanted to see how well the attacker got on with Postecoglou before making a firm decision.
However, with Son and Postecoglou's relationship blossoming, Tottenham have quickly accelerated contract talks with their captain, and there should not be any major roadblocks on the player's side.
Postecoglou lavished praise on the former Bayer Leverkusen man during a recent fans' forum, while also reserving special praise for Cristian Romero and James Maddison for taking on the duties of vice-captains.
"Everyone knows he's a fantastic footballer but he's just a brilliant human being. For any sort of manager, when you're looking for leaders in a group and they're all different types, firstly what kind of person are they is really important when setting up a team," 90min quotes Postecoglou as saying.
"Even from afar, even before I joined the club, obviously I've known Sonny for a long time because being from that part of the world myself and working in Asia and the exposure I had to his standing in the community there, you can tell he was respected. Whether it was teammates or opponents, everyone spoke really highly of him. I think he was the perfect embodiment.
"I think Sonny and [new vice-captains] James Maddison and Cuti Romero, they've embraced that leadership role. All the boys, irrespective of whether they've been here two months or ten years, they feel really comfortable in there. That's because of the people who are the leaders, not necessarily the players but the people."
Tottenham paid a modest £26m to bring Son to the club from Leverkusen in 2015, and the South Korea international has since contributed 148 goals and 80 assists from 378 appearances, putting him sixth on the club's all-time scoring charts.
Son has scored more goals for Tottenham than any other non-British player in history, while only Harry Kane (45) has netted more European goals for the Lilywhites than the 31-year-old (24).
The attacker also became the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot in 2021-22, netting 23 times to share the accolade with Liverpool's Mohamed Salah.
Tottenham have only agreed one contract extension in 2023 so far, tying backup goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman down to a new deal until the end of the 2024-25 season. body check tags ::
