sport news Explosion of relief spoke of deep love for Son Heung-min at Tottenham trends now
They will all tell you it does not matter who scores the goals as long as the team are winning, of course, but the explosion of delight when Son Heung-min fired his first into the top corner hinted at a different truth.
It was Tottenham’s fourth in the victory against luckless Leicester, brilliantly curled into the top corner with his right foot from 25 yards, and the scorer froze as the pressure of 118 days without a goal evaporated.
‘I couldn’t move,’ said Son, who had started the game on the bench. ‘I was just emotional for myself. I didn’t know what to do. I just stood still, looked at the sky, looked at the crowd. In my head, all my family came to mind, all the staff, all my team-mates. That’s why I just stood and had a think.’
The goals were the forward's first of the season after he had struggled earlier in the campaign
Thirteen minutes later, swept along by the emotion, Son had completed a hat-trick, the third awarded after a VAR check for offside to another deafening roar from the home crowd, and he walked off a hero with the ball under his arm.
All this, seven years to the day after his first goals for Spurs, two inside two minutes in the Europa League against Qarabag of Azerbaijan.
‘I was born loving football and I’m still in love with football,’ said Son. ‘I think about football. I’m an attacking player and when I’m not scoring I’m not happy. How can I be happy if I have an unbelievable opportunity to score or make chances? If I’m happy and I’m not scoring, I wouldn’t be here.
The South Korean Son Heung-min ended his 118-day drought with the hat-trick in 14 minutes
‘Sometimes when I go home, even if we have won the game, I’m still sad because my performance wasn’t good and there are things I can do better, and the mistakes I made because I missed the chances. I’m always thinking about football because I made it here and this is the way I am.
‘I love football even in the tough moments and this is why I am here.’
Strikers need goals to survive and Son’s barren run hit hard after last season ended with 12 goals in 10 games. Spurs boss Antonio Conte resisted the urge to leave him out until Saturday and all the pre-match chatter was about the Premier League’s Golden Boot winner dropped to the bench.
‘Sometimes you achieve so many amazing
