Tottenham’s Son Heung-min holds up the trophy after profitable the Europa League ultimate soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United on the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, Spain, Could 21. AP-Yonhap
Korean soccer icon Son Heung-min has had a whirlwind of a yr, profitable his first trophy in Europe with Tottenham Hotspur after which shifting throughout the Atlantic to affix Los Angeles Soccer Membership (LAFC) in Main League Soccer (MLS).
Son’s memorable yr was voted the No. 1 Korean sports activities story for 2024, in Yonhap Information Company’s annual survey of 34 home newspapers, broadcasters and on-line retailers.
Sports activities journalists nationwide have been requested to vote on newsworthy tales, with a first-place vote value 10 factors. Son’s season got here out on high with 276 factors.
On Could 21, Son captained Tottenham Hotspur to the Europa League crown over Manchester United. It was the primary trophy for Son in his 15-year European profession and likewise Tottenham’s first title of any type in 17 years.
It was a feel-good ending to what had in any other case been a attempting Premier League season for Son, who completed with simply seven targets in 30 league matches after reaching double figures in each marketing campaign since 2016-17. Son missed time because of a number of accidents and began displaying indicators that he had misplaced a step and will now not be thought of an inevitable drive within the high English league.
On this Getty Pictures photograph, Son Heung-min of Los Angeles Soccer Membership acknowledges followers after defeating Austin FC throughout the 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Oct. 29. AFP-Yonhap
Then on Aug. 2, whereas in his native Korea for Tottenham’s summer time tour, Son introduced he was leaving the North London membership after 10 seasons. LAFC unveiled Son 4 days later, in a press convention attended by, amongst others, LA Mayor Karen Bass.
Son immediately turned the largest MLS star on this aspect of Lionel Messi, scoring targets and organising teammates with spectacular regularity and drawing big crowds at each away cease. He had 9 targets in 10 regular-season matches and added three extra in three playoff contests.
Whereas Son reigned supreme because the nation’s most beloved athlete, baseball remained the most well-liked sport. In 2025, the Korea Baseball Group (KBO) broke its single-season file for the second straight yr, drawing simply over 12.31 million followers. The achievement ranked second in Yonhap’s survey with 250 factors.
When he wasn’t busy starring for Tottenham or LAFC, Son additionally captained Korea to their eleventh consecutive journey to the FIFA World Cup. However the path to the large match was something however clean, with Korea submitting lackluster performances in opposition to underdogs Palestine, Oman and Jordan.
Hardly well-liked amongst followers to start with for his alternative of Hong Myung-bo as head coach from the summer time of 2024, Korea Soccer Affiliation President Chung Mong-gyu confronted even louder requires resignation. The drama surrounding the lads’s nationwide soccer group checked in at No. 3 within the rankings with 233 factors.
One other baseball story got here in at No. 4. The LG Twins knocked off the Hanwha Eagles in 5 video games within the best-of-seven Korean Collection in October for his or her second title in three seasons, and their run to the highest of the KBO earned 202 factors.
Olympic desk tennis champion Ryu Seung-min, proper, celebrates his victory within the election for president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee on the Olympic Corridor inside Olympic Park in Seoul, Jan. 14. Yonhap
Korea welcomed a brand new head of its high nationwide sports activities physique, as Ryu Seung-min, the 2004 Olympic males’s desk tennis gold medalist, unseated the incumbent Lee Kee-heung as president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee. Ryu’s victory earned 152 factors to rank fifth.
Badminton star An Se-young, recent off a yr by which she earned her first Olympic gold medal within the girls’s singles, posted one other dominant 2025 season. She has received 10 of her 14 worldwide tournaments thus far this season, with the Badminton World Federation World Tour Finals arising this week. An is the primary girls’s singles participant to achieve double digits in wins in a season, and her sustained run of success ranked sixth with 147 factors.
A tragic story ranked seventh in Yonhap’s survey with 119 factors. Throughout a KBO regular-season recreation between the LG Twins and the NC Dinos at Changwon NC Park within the southeastern city of Changwon on March 29, a unfastened piece of louver fell from a window above a concession stand and struck an unsuspecting fan beneath. The fan died of a head damage two days later, prompting intensive security inspections on the stadium and forcing the Dinos to spend the subsequent a number of weeks on the highway.
A narrative centered on one other iconic athlete got here in at eighth with 116 factors. Volleyball celebrity Kim Yeon-koung introduced her plan to retire in February, along with her Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders within the midst of their V-League season, and Kim went out on high by main her membership to the championship in April. In a storybook ending, Kim received each the regular-season and the finals MVP awards. It was Kim’s seventh regular-season MVP and fourth finals MVP.
Cody Ponce of the Hanwha Eagles poses with the trophy after profitable the Korea Baseball Group regular-season MVP award throughout the awards ceremony at Lotte Resort World in Seoul, Nov. 24. Yonhap
The KBO topped a brand new MVP winner this yr, as Hanwha Eagles beginning pitcher Cody Ponce earned the glory after profitable the Triple Crown. He led the KBO with 17 wins, a 1.89 ERA and a league-record 252 strikeouts, and his dominant season earned 83 factors to complete ninth within the Yonhap survey.
Ponce turned the primary Eagles participant to be voted MVP since Ryu Hyun-jin, his rotation mate, in 2006.
Along with breaking the single-season strikeout file, Ponce additionally set the mark for essentially the most strikeouts in a nine-inning recreation, with 18 in opposition to the SSG Landers on Could 17. Ryu had held the earlier mark of 17. Ponce claimed one other KBO file by profitable his first 17 choices in a row — the longest profitable streak by a pitcher from the beginning of a season.
Ponce parlayed that success right into a three-year, $30 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Rounding out the highest 10 with 76 factors was the resurgent season by Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors within the high soccer league, Ok League 1. Beneath new head coach Gus Poyet, Jeonbuk cruised to their league-record tenth title and clinched it with 5 matches to spare on Oct. 18.
After capturing a Ok League-record fifth consecutive title in 2021, Jeonbuk ceded the crown to Ulsan HD FC, who reeled off three straight championships from 2022 to 2024. And in 2024, Jeonbuk almost suffered relegation to the Ok League 2, as they needed to survive a promotion-relegation playoff in opposition to a second-division foe.
Jeonbuk didn’t file a win of their first 4 matches of this season, with two losses and two attracts. After which they went on a 22-match undefeated streak with 17 wins and 5 attracts — tying for the third-longest such run in Ok League historical past.
Jeonbuk pulled off a home double by additionally profitable the Korea Cup title on Dec. 6. And solely two days later, Poyet introduced he’ll step down after only one season within the Ok League 1 — ostensibly as a result of his trusted lieutenant, Mauricio Taricco, had resigned earlier after being suspended by the league for what it deemed a racist gesture towards a referee throughout a heated in-game trade in November.
Given his pedigree and instantaneous success in Korea, Poyet and his backroom workers will probably resurface elsewhere earlier than too lengthy.
