Last month, Son Heung-min celebrated his hattrick against Leicester City with a long embrace with fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, who sadly passed away today.

The Italian fitness coach joined Antonio Conte’s staff at Tottenham in November of last year and he made an immediate impact in North London, raising the physical and athletic fitness levels of the squad with his well-drilled training methods. 

Nicknamed ‘the Marine’, Ventrone spent nine years across two different spells with Juventus from 1994 to 2004, working closely with Marcello Lippi. He was also part of the Azzurri staff for the 2006 World Cup, playing a key role in preparing the players on the training ground.

After the final whistle of Tottenham’s 6-2 win over Leicester last month, Son spent around 20 seconds embracing Ventrone on the touchline before heading down the tunnel, an emotional celebration he explained after the final whistle to the media.

“Yeah, he is a killer. He is a killer but I have a really, really good relationship with Gian Piero. So obviously his English is not perfect, sometimes he is coming with his phone and translating into English from Italian.

“It means a lot. Not as football-wise, I think life-wise he gives me so much advice, which I am really grateful.

“He has been so helpful, giving me always a big hug in tough times and even great times he has always been next to me and every staff. Even today before we left the training ground, the hotel, we had a couple of minutes of having a nice conversation which made me really comfortable and really grateful.”

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