Heung-min Son says pressure from winning Golden Boot has affected him

Tottenham Hotspur forward Heung-min Son has admitted to experiencing extra “pressure and attention” after sharing the Premier League Golden Boot last season.

Son finished the 2021/22 season with 23 league goals for Spurs, tying him for the league’s lead with Mohamed Salah, who netted the same number for Liverpool.

That was Son’s best Premier League goal total in a single season, six more than the 17 he managed the previous year, and he believes such an outlay carried with it a level of scrutiny he had not before encountered.

Despite his insistence that he enjoys the pressure, Son’s form under the spotlight has been disappointing, with only seven Premier League goals in 28 games.

The 30-year-old still has eight games left this season, and he did score in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Brighton and Hove Albion, but this might be the first season since his debut season with Spurs that he does not reach double figures for goals.

Whatever the outcome of 2022/23, Son believes he can return stronger next season.

“Look, if I want to make excuses for the way I’ve played, I can find lots of them, but I’m not the type of guy who goes around making excuses and saying, ‘That was not the real me’,” Son told reporters.

“It happened, you move on, and I accept I was not at the top level.

“Last season was fantastic and to win the Golden Boot was a magical moment which gave me amazing confidence.

“Coming into the new season, everyone was saying, ‘Sonny’s got the Golden Boot’ and expecting me to have another amazing run, but sometimes it’s not that simple because you get more attention and more pressure, which I love.

“This is the reason we play, because I love this pressure, and it means I’m not the perfect player. I can still improve at my age, and the last eight games will be very important for me and the team.”