DOHA – Ghana coach Otto Addo is looking forward to renewing a longstanding relationship with South Korea’s Son Heung-min when the teams clash at the World Cup on Monday.

Ghana, who lost their opening game to Portugal, are seeking their first points in Group H against the South Koreans, who kicked off with a 0-0 draw against Uruguay, and are well aware of the threat Son will pose at Al Rayyan’s Education City Stadium.

The German-born Ghanaian coach was with the Under-19s at Hamburg when Son arrived at the club aged 17 in 2009 and the teenager made a quick impression.

“I really liked his character, he was a very hardworking player. I was the one who proposed him to the first team,” said Addo on Sunday.

Son signed a professional contract at 18 and soon after became Hamburg’s youngest Bundesliga scorer.

He later moved to Bayer Leverkusen in 2013 in a transfer deal reportedly worth €10 million (S$14.3 million).

The South Korean attacker has since played more than 200 English Premier League matches for Tottenham Hotspur and emerged as his country’s talisman, competing in his third World Cup.

“He became so good because he worked hard for it.

“He’s gone on to have a great career and I’m happy he is healthy and able to play against us, but we will stop him together as a team,” added Addo, 47, who has been doubling up the job of coaching Ghana with coaching youth players at Borussia Dortmund.

Son recently returned from surgery to stabilise a fracture around his eye and played in a black protective mask on Thursday, spearheading the South Korean attack which did not have much impact as they had six attempts at goal but none on target.

“We know his strength and we’re going to listen to the coach who has a plan to stop him,” said Ghana defender Daniel Amartey, who also plays in the top flight in England for Leicester.

Taegeuk Warriors coach Paulo Bento said the team would see a “different” Son against Ghana after the forward got used to his face mask during their World Cup opener.

“It’s completely normal to face some challenges during the first game,” he said on Sunday.

“As far as Son is concerned, he was recently injured and he was also adapting, trying to feel comfortable with the face mask.

“First he needed to feel at ease with his teammates and afterwards with the opponents. The second game will be different.

“He has already been able to play throughout the 90 minutes and as a team we needed to do our best so that we can take advantage of his skills.”

However, Bento has admitted he is frustrated at the loss of experienced Napoli defender Kim Min-jae, who is still plagued by “some lingering pains” after the draw with Uruguay.

Meanwhile, Addo said on Sunday the chances of an African team reaching the latter stages of the World Cup will remain limited until the continent is awarded more places at the tournament.

No African side has ever gone beyond the quarter-finals at a World Cup, although Ghana were a missed penalty away from reaching the last four at South Africa in 2010.

Addo said Africa, with 54 teams, deserved more slots. “There was never a point where everybody had an equal chance at the start. Never in Fifa history,” Addo said in Doha.

“It’s very, very difficult if you have five slots to get far. If you have 12 or 14 slots – I don’t know how many Europe get – the probability that a team will get further is much, much higher.”

Thirteen of the 32 nations present in Qatar come from Europe. Asia has six representatives, with South America and the Concacaf region sending four each.

Senegal are the only African side to have won a match at the Qatar World Cup. None of the five African teams who took part four years ago in Russia made it out the group stage. REUTERS, AFP, XINHUA