Son Heung-min has said that Rodrigo Bentancur “almost cried” when he apologised for his comments about the Tottenham Hotspur captain.
Bentancur, 27, said South Korean international Son and his cousins “all look the same” on the television programme Por la Camiseta, which is broadcast in his native Uruguay.
Bentancur apologised to Son, 32, on social media and called it “a joke in bad taste.” Tottenham later released a statement saying that Son wanted to “draw a line under the incident.”
Earlier this month Bentancur was charged by the Football Association (FA) for an alleged aggravated breach of their rules over the remarks. If he is found guilty or does not contest the charge, he could receive a six-to-12 game ban.
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Son was asked about his relationship with Bentancur before Tottenham’s Europa League game against Qarabag on Thursday.
“The process is with the FA and that’s why I can’t say much about it, but I love Rodrigo,” Son said. “I repeat: I love him, I love him.
“We had a lot of good memories, we started playing together when he joined. He apologised straight afterwards, you know, when we had a holiday.
“I was at home and I didn’t even realise what was going on. He just sent me a long text message that you could feel was coming from his heart. Afterwards, when he came back to the training ground for pre season, he just like felt really sorry and almost like cried when he apologised publicly and also personally as well. It felt like he feels really sorry.”
Son added: “We’re all human and make mistakes, and we learn from it. But I love Rodrigo. I love him, I love him. You know, he made a mistake. But I have no problem at all. At all. We just move on as team-mates and friends and brothers, move on together. I hope.
“We just have to wait for the FA’s process. I can’t say much. But one thing I can say is that I love Rodrigo. There is nothing more to say.”
Bentancur has made five appearances in all competitions for Spurs this season and has started their last two Premier League games against Arsenal and Brentford.
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Son, meanwhile, also weighed in on the growing concerns about player welfare, echoing the sentiments of Manchester City’s Rodri, who recently stated that players are “close” to going on strike due to the overloaded football calendar.
Reflecting on the issue, Son said: “A lot of players came out and said the right things. It was very important for someone to say the right things. Sometimes players are the main guys to have to say something. There’s definitely a lot of games and as a football fan who loves football you want to see quality games not as many as possible.
“You don’t want to see players struggling with injuries. No one wants to see it. A lot of games, a lot of travelling. We have to look after ourselves, which sometimes it’s very hard. We’re not robots. We have to look after that and reduce the games definitely — better quality definitely should be the aim.”
Son’s comments follow a recent FIFPro report which concluded that the 2024-25 season is set to be the worst in terms of player workload.
(Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)