Son Heung-min posts a double-digit score this season

Son Heung-min posts a double-digit score this season. January. 31, 2017 07:01. by Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com.

Son Heung-min (25) has become the first Korean to post a double-digit score in the English Premier League in a single season.

At the match against Wickham Market FC (quaternary league team) in the round of 32 teams in the FA Cup that took place in London on Sunday, Son of Tottenham Hotspur (main league) played as starting member and scored two goals to lead his team’s 4-3 win. He scored a goal to narrow the gap at 15th minute in the second half when Tottenham was trailing 0-2, while adding the dramatic finisher right before the game’s end (52nd minute in the second half) when the score was tying 3-3.

Son's 10th and 11th goals of this season in succession have made him the first Korean player to have posted over 10 goals in a single season in the English Premier League. Son had seven goals in the EPL, three in the FA Cup, and one in the UEFA Champions League in this season. “I have scored tremendously exciting goals amid fans’ enthusiastic cheering, and I am very happy to present the goals as the New Year’s gift,” Son said after showing ceremony of Lunar New Year’s Day greeting.

Son played full time in the match against Wickham on the day, but he has not completely secured his berth in the race to become a starting member in his team. Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino fielded Son and others as starting players in Sunday's game in lieu of the team's main strikers including Harry Kane, given the rival team’s low ranking. Son has not played as a starter since the game against Watford FC on January 1. However, he successfully demonstrated to the manager by scoring multiple goals on Saturday that he maintains the sense and ability to score despite playing as both starter and replacement back and forth.

"It is important that they need to feel that we trust them," Pochettino told reporters after the game. "It's not that we only trust 10 or 11 players because always if you want to win titles, if you want to be in the history of football, it is not only 11 players or 14 or 16."