Hugo on Sonny: “Behind the top player is a top man everybody loves”

Hugo Lloris pointed to the maturity in Heung-Min Son’s game as the popular South Korean lifted the Premier League’s Golden Boot on Sunday.

Sonny shared the league’s prestigious goalscoring award with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah on 23 goals - his highest goals total for a Premier League season and, indeed, his career, going back to his professional campaign in 2010/11 when he was plying his trade with Hamburg in the Bundesliga. His previous best was 17 in 2020/21.

Needing a point from our final game, a trip to Norwich last weekend, to secure fourth place and qualification into next season’s Champions League, the most important job was all-but done just after the hour mark with us 3-0 up thanks to a double from Dejan Kulusevski and Harry Kane’s stooping header.

But it looked like being one of those days for Sonny in front of goal as he chased Salah - who has gone into the fame one ahead of our number seven on 22 goals – as, at 3-0, Tim Krul denied him from point-blank range and then one-on-one.

That all changed on 70 minutes though, when Sonny finessed the ball home after good work from Harry and Lucas Moura. He then went ahead of Salah with a stunning final goal of the season, a curler from 25 yards that spun beyond Krul’s dive into the corner. Salah soon went level again though, scoring late for Liverpool for his 23rd of the campaign, but it was ultimately the perfect end to the day for our South Korean international with a 5-0 win, Champions League qualification and a Golden Boot all in the bag.

“We’re very happy for Sonny - a big personal achievement for him, and he deserves it,” reflected skipper Hugo at Carrow Road. “I was starting to doubt it in the second half when Tim Krul made three big saves!

“All the players, all the staff are so happy for him because, at some stages of the season, Sonny helped the team get important points. He’s arrived at the perfect age - you can see how mature he is in his game, but also, behind the top player, there is a top man that everybody loves.”

Antonio Conte agreed with Hugo’s sentiments – and pointed towards the teamwork behind Sonny’s individual glory. “All the team was very happy to help Sonny reach this big achievement,” he said. “To see this atmosphere, to see this important relationship between the players, is the foundation to have success in football.”