Tottenham Hotspur’s forward, Son Heung-min has become the first Asian player ever to win the Premier League’s Golden Boot.
He netted two goals on the final day of the 2021-22 season to take his tally to 23 goals, splitting the award with Liverpool’s Mo Salah.
Remarkably, Salah led the top scorer table going into the final game of the season with 22 goals to Son’s 21. The Korean added two more in Spurs’ 5-0 win over Norwich City, while Salah picked up a late goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers to split the prize.
Son achieved the feat despite not being the key man for his team as against Salah who is Liverpool’s main star. The two top scorers approached the prize in very different ways.
The Liverpoool forward, Salah drove home 20 goals by the middle of March and then his performance sloped off in the last two months of the season, with two goals in a game on April 19 and one more on the final day of the season.
On the other hand, Son struck nine times in his last 10 games with six goals coming in the last five games to shoot up the scoring charts and draw level with Salah.
What is even more amazing is that Son netted all 23 of his goals without a single penalty, far outpacing Salah, who scored five penalties this season. He scored 12 goals with his left foot and 11 with his right foot.
In view of this development, Son is now the first Asian footballer to win a Premier League Golden Boot award, making Korea the 13th country to provide a winner, after Britain, the Netherlands, France, Argentina, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Bulgaria, Gabon, Portugal, Senegal, Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking on the feat, the elated Son, said “It’s incredible to have this award. I can’t believe it. I got really emotional. I dreamed of it as a child. Literally it’s my in hands. I can’t believe it.”
“I wanted to score today. The team helped me a lot at half-time. They wanted to help me, you could see it today.”
On his part, Tottenham manager Antonio Conte credited the team effort with helping Son win the award.
Conte said “It means that there is a great atmosphere in the dressing room. It means the players are really good people, not only good players. We were good to match today these two targets, to get a place in the Champions League and for Sonny to win the Golden Boot.”
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