Living Legend: Son Heung-min Nets 59th International Goal to Shatter 48-Year National Record

Summary South Korean football icon Son Heung-min has officially etched his name into the annals of sporting history by netting his 59th senior international goal, breaking the nearly 48-year-old men's national record set by legendary striker Cha Bum-kun. The historic milestone arrived in the sixth minute of an international friendly against Uzbekistan at Yongin Mireu Stadium in Gyeonggi Province. Captaining the side under interim manager Robert Moreno, Son drew a handball foul just outside the penalty arc and stepped up to take the free kick. With characteristic precision, Son curled a low, right-footed strike around the defensive wall into the bottom right corner of the net, paving the way for a 2-0 victory for South Korea. This 59th international goal came in Son’s 151st cap for the national team, breaking his tie with legendary trailblazer Cha Bum-kun, affectionately dubbed "Cha Boom," who recorded 58 goals across 136 caps between 1972 and 1978. Cha’s final international goal had stood untouched since December 17, 1978, at the Bangkok Asian Games—spanning an incredible 47 years, 9 months, and 21 days (17,461 days) before Son surpassed it. While midfielder Ji So-yun holds the overall all-time national record with 76 goals for the women's national team, Son now stands alone at the pinnacle of men's football in Korea. In South Korean sports culture, sporting the *Taegeuk* crest on the national jersey carries immense prestige and national duty, often viewed as the ultimate honor for an athlete. Son made his senior international debut back in December 2010 at age 18 against Syria and scored his maiden international goal shortly after at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup against India. Across 16 uninterrupted years representing South Korea, Son has featured in four consecutive FIFA World Cups (from Brazil 2014 through North America 2026), scoring three World Cup goals to share the all-time Korean tournament scoring lead with legends Park Ji-sung and Ahn Jung-hwan. Having previously eclipsed Cha and former manager Hong Myung-bo's joint record for the most senior caps (136) in October 2025, Son now holds both the appearance and scoring crown in men's Korean football history. The milestone strike also brought his lifetime professional and international tally to 301 official goals, spanning stints with Hamburger SV, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham Hotspur—where he won the Premier League Golden Boot as the first Asian player to do so—and his current club Los Angeles FC. For Korean sports fans, Son surpassing Cha Bum-kun marks a symbolic passing of the torch between two generational icons who defined South Korean football on the global stage.