Son Heung-min (30, Tottenham) became the first Asian player to score 20 goals in a season in the top five European football leagues. It has been 12 years since he debuted in the first division of European football in Hamburg, Germany’s Bundesliga in 2010.
Son Heung-min scored the 20th goal of the season with the opening goal in the 11th minute in the English Premier League (EPL) visit match once morest Liverpool on the 8th. Heung-Min Son is the first Asian player to score 20 goals in a season in La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany), and Ligue 1 (France), the five major European football leagues including the EPL. Son Heung-min, who scored his 18th and 19th goals once morest Leicester City on the 1st, broke the record for most goals by a Korean player in the European League in a season, set by former national team coach Cha Beom-geun during the 1985-1986 season playing for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.
If Son Heung-min adds one more goal from the remaining three games this season, he is tied with the most goals scored by an Asian player in a season in the first division of Europe. Iran national striker Alireza Jahanbach (Feyenoord) scored 21 goals in the 2017-18 season while playing for Alkmaar in the Dutch league Eredivisie, becoming the top scorer. Heung-Min Son reached the record for most goals (22 goals) in an official match in a season set in the 2020-2021 season by one goal. Heung-Min Son also scored one goal in the UEFA Europa Conference League this season.
Son Heung-min, who is in second place in the EPL in scoring, narrowed the gap with the opposing team striker Mohammed Salah (30 and 22 goals), who failed to score that day, to two goals, driving the competition for the top scorer even more fiercely. Heung-Min Son has been following Salah’s chin with a sense of goal scoring 9 goals in the last 7 matches, including this game. In the last 7 matches, Salah has only scored two goals once morest Manchester United on the 22nd of last month. Looking at the recent momentum, Son Heung-min’s possibility of a comeback seems to be sufficient. England, the ‘hometown of soccer’, has a history of over 130 years in the first division, but no Asian player has ever been the top scorer. After the match once morest Liverpool, Son Heung-min said: “It is more important for the team to go to the UEFA Champions League than for me to score. As long as we win, I don’t have to score.” Tottenham Hotspur, who finished the match in a 1-1 draw by conceding an equalizer to Liverpool in the 29th minute of the second half, is one point behind Arsenal, who has played less than 4th place as of the 8th, with 62 points (19 wins, 5 draws and 11 losses). In the EPL, you have to finish in the top 4 to qualify for the Champions League next season. Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal will face off on the 13th.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: “Tottenham have world-class strikers preparing for their counterattack. With this draw, Liverpool also stopped their 12-game winning streak at Anfield (Liverpool’s home ground) since the match once morest Arsenal on November 21 last year.
By Kim Dong-wook, staff reporter creating@donga.com