Son Heung-min is a tearful player; he cries when South Korea wins, cries when South Korea loses, cries when he makes a mistake at Tottenham Hotspur. In general, he is a man of tears, a man of cries. A famous defender like Gimenes from Uruguay also cried while standing in the wall without being teased or touched. Strong as Ronaldo also cries, resilient as Messi also cries, even crying many times.

And not only in defeat, champions also cry; football players can cry heartily like a baby, and athletes in other sports, who are also very strong, they cry too. Football is clearly a game that makes men cry, but why do football players cry even though they are strong, extremely strong both physically and mentally? Is it that stepping onto the field makes them weak?

It is said that football is an emotional sport, but there is still something unsettling when thinking that ordinary players who are not afraid of contact on the field, the role models for masculinity can also shed tears. However, if you are a player, you will understand that sometimes tears just flow naturally, that's all, but for fans and especially viewers to understand the tears in football, let's try to look at it from a scientific perspective.

Crying here is defined as the shedding of tears in response to an emotional state; it is different from tears flowing naturally as a reflex, and you may be surprised that tears from the eyes can flow, but there are actually three types of tears. One is the tears that help lubricate the cornea, which are flowing all the time. Two are reflex tears that flow when your eyes have foreign particles or dirt that need to be washed away; we often encounter this in daily life. For example, when cutting onions or peppers, tears will flow, or when dust gets in, tears will also flow. At that time, tears help us clean our eyes, and the third type of tears is emotional tears; when you are crying, that is the type of tears we are referring to, and this third type of tears seems to only appear in humans, so if you see your pet dog or cat suddenly teary-eyed, it doesn't mean they are sad. It's all just a trick.

Now science has advanced, and scientists have researched and they suspect that some animals like elephants, chimpanzees, or gorillas can also shed tears due to emotions, and this is still controversial. Scientists have confirmed that almost all land animals have the ability to secrete tears from the lacrimal glands, the main purpose of which is to keep moist, lubricate, and clean the eyes, rather than for emotional reasons. Even the primates closest to us do not express emotions as intensely through tears. As mentioned, it is still a debate whether this is truly emotion or not. When sad or scared, their usual reflex is to whimper or scream, not to cry.

So why do we cry?

In humans, tears have developed as a communication signal; they allow us to signal to others that we are vulnerable and need support, which is also a key characteristic of us humans. Crying signals to yourself and others that there is an important issue temporarily beyond our ability to handle. For example, this is a problem too difficult for me; I can't solve it, so I will cry. This is a kick I can't execute; I will cry. I am teased by others, and I can't react; I will also cry, and at that moment, you need help.

In classic experiments, scientists showed volunteers images of the same face with and without tears, and the result was that faces with tears evoked more empathy and willingness to help than those without tears. Indeed, tears always make things easier, and women probably understand this very well. And surprisingly, tears also have their own chemical formula; scientists have found some evidence that emotional tears are different from reflex tears, the kind you encounter, for example, when cutting onions, meaning that tears when you are sad have a different formula than tears when you cut onions. This may help explain why crying conveys a strong emotional signal to others.

The results show that emotional tears contain enzymes, lipids, metabolites, and electrolytes, and particularly, emotional tears contain up to 21% more protein than normal tears. One hypothesis suggests that the higher protein content makes emotional tears thicker, so they adhere to the skin better and flow down more slowly, making it easier for others to see emotional tears than the kind of tears we have reflexively when cutting onions.

Studies also suggest that women's tears contain a substance that inhibits male sexual arousal; they can reduce male aggression, and men seeing women's tears naturally become calmer. After all these theories, we can draw a simple answer. Football players are also human, and football is a sport of dramatic, emotional moments; it is not surprising that players also cry. But there is another thought, another question: why do some players cry more than others?

In fact, this relates to a concept called the crying threshold, defined as the point at which intense emotion triggers our tears. This threshold varies from person to person; some people have a low crying threshold, just a small tease, for example, someone stepping on their foot on the bus, and they might already be crying. But for some people with a higher threshold, they need a bigger event, such as a significant loss or an emotion too strong to cry. These thresholds can also change throughout a person's life, even changing in a single day. This is something we can easily imagine; even in ourselves, when we were younger, we had very low thresholds, very simple things could make us cry.

As we grow up, such teasing or emotional impacts make it harder for us to cry. And whenever we are tired, we are also more likely to cry; this is especially true for a football player. Those who play for 45 minutes find it hard to cry, but those who play for 90 minutes find it easier to cry, and sometimes after 120 minutes if they play extra time, and during a penalty shootout, it becomes even more emotional and tiring, making it easier to cry.

But why does fatigue make players cry more easily?

Because when physically exhausted, it makes our brains function less effectively, leading to poorer emotional control. This explains why a football player who goes through 120 minutes of intense play along with a penalty shootout is more likely to cry than other players. In summary, tears and the act of crying are a natural part of human activity. Tears serve many different purposes, from reflexes that help moisten the eyes to emotional signals that create empathy and convey a message that I need help. As humans, there is no reason to prevent football players, who are so masculine, from crying, especially when long matches have worn down their emotional control, and football is a game of emotions.

In fact, those who do not cry are sometimes considered to have issues; scientists have found that people who cry less are socially less communicative, and they tend to be more aggressive and easily angered than tearful men. Therefore, there is nothing to be ashamed of when a strong, masculine football player cries; this is not contradictory at all unless you live in a culture full of prejudices linking tears to weakness and only allowing women to cry.

And did you know that women cry more than men? Scientific studies have shown that women cry more often than men about three to four times, especially women tend to cry more intensely than men and find it harder to stop. The more we cry, the more energy we release, and if you are sick, crying can even help you feel better. At this point, tears act as the most effective sedative, and eventually, you will cry less as you age because tear production will gradually decrease with age, leading to the development of dry eye disease.