Son finishes season, coming in fourth in top scorer, assist category

Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspurs wrapped up the 2020-21 Premier League season with some successful personal records. During the season’s last game against Leicester City played in Leicester, Son played for 94 minutes before being substituted in the injury time.

The Spurs beat Leicester City 4-2 with Harry Kane’s first goal, an own goal by the Leicester City goalkeeper in the 76th minute, and two goals by Gareth Bale in the 86th minute and the injury time. Finishing in seventh place, the Spurs failed to earn their spot in the Champions League or Europa League next season, but sealed a Europa Conference League spot. The Europa Conference League is the third tier of European club football after second-tier Europa League.

Although the Spurs performed worse than expected this season, Son had the most successful season with 22 goals and 17 assists, accumulating 39 attacking points. It is higher than his personal best attacking points of 30 recorded in the 2019-20 season.

Son came in fourth in the goal-scoring and assist charts in English Premier League. The 17 goals he scored in the league is a tie with the most goals scored in a season by Korean footballer in Europe, the record set by former Korean national football team manager Cha Bum-kun. The record was set during the 1985-86 season while Cha played for Leverkusen in Bundesliga. Son has scored more than 10 goals and 10 assists for two consecutive seasons, a first in the Spurs’ history.


Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com