Spurs could finally replace Son by signing £68m World Cup star

Since Heung-min Son left Tottenham Hotspur a year ago it has been an absolute whirlwind in the English capital.

Sonny left on good terms. Sure, Spurs may have finished 17th in the Premier League but a Europa League winners medal was the least he deserved for everything he had given to the Londoners.

Yet, his exit was the catalyst, not for anything positive, but for a sea of negativity. The Lilywhites have had three managers since his exit, finished 17th again and broken their transfer record to sign £100m Sandro Tonali. It’s been a rollercoaster.

Whether Roberto De Zerbi can fix the rubble surrounding the club after Son’s departure is anyone’s guess, but he will need to fix a few issues that seem to be deeply entrenched within this great football club.

Why Spurs have to sign a new winger this summer

As when Harry Kane left Tottenham three years ago, it was never going to be easy to replace such an iconic and legendary figure. It would be virtually impossible.

Replacing Son has proven tricky, but given his performances were waning anyway as he got older, it should not have been such an uphill struggle to find a player capable of scoring goals from the flanks.

On paper, last summer’s recruitment did not look bad. They famously missed out on Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze but they still signed one of the most promising young playmakers in Europe in Xavi Simons and a proven Premier League figure in Mohammed Kudus.

Randal Kolo Muani had even joined on loan but it would be safe to say that a year on, they did not really convince. Simons was just getting up to speed before a cruel ACL rupture while Kudus suffered with injury for much of the season.

After scoring eight goals in 16 games for Juventus in 2024/25, Kolo Muani looked a strong pick up but his time in London was simply a disaster, netting just five times in 41 matches.

Elsewhere, the likes of Wilson Odobert and Matys Tel also struggled, bagging six goals between them. Brennan Johnson was also rather regrettably sold over the winter.

Based on all of that, a winger is required. They don’t necessarily need to be quite as good as Son – that would be a challenge to find – but it’s abundantly clear that after signing Tonali and Mateus Fernandes, they need to spend big to improve the forward line.

How Spurs can finally replace Son

Spurs have thrown the kitchen sink at the transfer window this summer and have come out with some incredibly exciting additions. However, the cherry on the top of the cake would be a batch of shiny new forwards.

Eli Junior Kroupi of Bournemouth is a leading target to strengthen the attack but Bournemouth are demanding north of £90m and in general, have no desire to sell.

The story may well be different for Benfica’s Andreas Schjelderup who looks rather more attainable this summer. Like Kroupi, he’s one of the most exciting young forwards in Europe right now and is fresh off a World Cup where he really caught the eye for Norway, notably scoring a fortuitious but remarkable goal against England in the quarter-finals.

His stock has risen as a result of his performances on the global stage with Benfica now valuing the winger at a £68m price tag according to TEAMtalk. Spurs are one of the sides interested and ENIC officials have already held talks with the Portuguese side about a summer move.

Would he be worth it? Well, it’s a lot of money to pay but a look at the data tells you this is one incredibly exciting winger who has similar traits to the aforementioned Son.

Last season, Schjelderup scored ten goals and supplied seven assists which are not jaw-dropping figures but there is more to the Norwegian than that. Indeed, as per Scout Lab’s comparison tool, he was deemed to be similar statistically to Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki, RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande and PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in 2025/26.

Why? Well, like all of them and indeed like Son, he’s one of the best ball carriers in Europe.

In his prime, Son was one of the most captivating wingers in the world. He was electric, so aggressive with his running. Very few full-backs stood a chance of getting the ball from him. He was remarkably progressive.

Schjelderup is cut from a similar cloth. Last season, the 22-year-old made 1.96 shot-ending carries per 90 minutes, enough to rank him among the top 4% of positionally similar players in Europe’s top five leagues for that metric.

He further ranked among the best 6% for productive dribbles with 0.88 per 90 and in the top 3% for progressive carries per 90 with 5.76.

The fact is that this young winger’s ball control and ball manipulation is remarkably good. Try and stop him at your peril; he will simply skip past you, much like Sonny in his heyday.