That’s why he deserves to be the ‘Tottenham captain’
Tottenham Hotspur’s “Captain” Son Heung-min (31) has been selected as the English Premier League (EPL) Team of the Year “20 Candidates.”
The EPL Secretariat announced on the 27th that it has selected 20 candidates for the 2023–2024 season. Son Heung-min was included in the list, receiving the eighth highest evaluation with 94 points.
Along with Son Heung-min, Phil Foden, Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka (Also Arsenal), and Cole Palmer (Chelsea) were among the candidates.
Liverpool and Arsenal produced the highest number of five candidates side by side. Manchester City nominated three, and Tottenham only nominated Son Heung-min.
Son’s shoulders were heavy this season. His best friend Harry Kane was transferred to Bayern Munich, Germany’s prestigious club, and had to play twice as long. The captain’s armband was added to the burden.
However, Son was truly remarkable. He got off to a splendid start to the season by scoring a whopping hat trick, including his first goal, in a showdown with Burnley in the fourth round of the EPL. He also scored goals in the matches against Arsenal and Liverpool. Spurs was a stormy team early this season. It was brief but took the lead.
Earlier this month, England’s “Football 365” selected Son Heung-min as the №1 player who scored more goals than expected (xG).
Early this year, he was a member of the Korean A team, leaving his team for a while due to participation at the Asian Cup in Qatar of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), but has scored 15 goals and nine assists in the EPL this season. He is tying for eighth in scoring in the league and tied for fourth in assists.
Son Heung-min will challenge the record of his third regular league (10 goals-10 assists) against Arsenal in the EPL on the 28th.
If he adds one more help, he will become the sixth player in the EPL to achieve 10 goals-10 assists three times. Wayne Rooney (5 times), Eric Cantona, Frank Lampard (four times), Didier Drogba, and Mohammad Salah (three times) previously set such records.
Son Heung-min, who joined Tottenham in 2015, became the first Asian player to record 11 goals and 10 assists in the 2019–2020 season, and became the first Asian player to record 10 goals and 10 assists in the EPL. In the very next season, Son also scored 17 goals and 10 assists, achieving 10 goals and 10 assists for the second consecutive season.
According to the British newspaper Mirror on Wednesday, Son Heung-min said ahead of the match against Arsenal, “It will be a good test stage for our team. Tottenham is still a young team lacking experience. It is a club with new experiences. It will be a good time to test ourselves against one of the best teams in the world (Ahnall).”
He continued, “It will be very important to stick to how we play. We have made tremendous preparations (for over a week) to prepare for the match against Arsenal. Everyone is looking forward to the match against Arsenal. We are well aware of what the North London derby means for our team and our fans. So we will prepare well and play the game in our own style. I always take the field with confidence. I believe in myself. So Arsenal doesn’t make me more motivated. Every game feels huge to me.”
In addition, Son said, “It doesn’t matter who scores a goal, and it doesn’t matter that I scored six goals against Arsenal in the EPL. It is important that I am ready for the biggest game of the season.”
Son Heung-min remembers the 0–4 defeat in the previous match against Newcastle. He is vowing to rebound.
“I couldn’t accept the result against Newcastle nor my performance. I am working really hard to rebound.” 배트맨토토
