A South Korean court has sentenced a woman in her 20s to four years in prison for blackmailing football star Son Heung-min, after falsely claiming she was pregnant with his child. Her accomplice, a man in his 40s, was also convicted and handed a two-year jail term for attempted blackmail.
According to reports from a Seoul district court, the woman approached the former Tottenham Hotspur captain last year, alleging she was carrying his child—despite not knowing whether the claim was true. She went on to extort 300 million won ($200,000; £153,000) from Son, threatening to make the allegation public if he refused to pay.
Local media and AFP reported that the woman spent the money on luxury and designer items.
Prosecutors told the court on Monday that “[the woman] insists she received the money as compensation and portrays herself as a victim,” but argued that “her claims do not fully match the facts,” accusing her of planning the crime “thoroughly.”
The male accomplice had threatened Son 15 times in attempts to extract the money. When the pair demanded additional payments this year, Son reported the matter to the police.
In delivering the verdict, the judge said the duo had exploited Son’s celebrity status and noted that the footballer appeared to have suffered “intense mental anguish” after news of the case became public.
Son, who left Tottenham in August after ten years to join Los Angeles Football Club in a record-breaking Major League Soccer (MLS) transfer, was named in October as the second-highest-paid player in North America’s top-tier league.
Widely considered one of Asia’s greatest footballers, Son remains hugely popular in South Korea and across the region. In 2022, he became the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot while at Spurs.
