Son Heung-min is best two-footed scorer in Premier League, shows two is better than one

Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal during a Premier League match against Leicester City at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday. [AFP/YONHAP]

With the two goals and one assist against Leicester City on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min has proven that he is the most two-footed goalscorer in Premier League history.

Son pulled off a tour de force to lead Tottenham to a 3-1 win over Leicester City on Sunday. The Son and Harry Kane duo were behind all three of the goals, Kane scoring the first goal with Son’s assist then Son scoring the next two.

Goal No. 1 for Son came in the 60th minute when a well-timed tackle from Cristian Romero landed at the feet of Kulusevski, who ran the ball into the box and passed to Son. The Korean international allowed the ball to go past him before turning on the spot and sending it across the goal with his left foot and into the right corner.

But while his first goal showed some beautiful control, the second was a work of art. Kulusevski again was the one to set it up, passing to Son from the right wing to put him in space just outside the far-right corner of the box.

After taking a couple of touches, Son fired a screamer across the box into the top left corner, easily beating Kasper Schmeichel with his left foot for one of Son's best goals of the season.

With eight minutes left on the clock, Son was taken off the field. Tottenham coach Antonio Conte was seen embracing the double scorer and asking him something.

Later, Conte revealed in a post-match interview that he had asked Son, “Which is your favorite foot — right or left?”

Though Son is known to be right-footed, the two left-footed goals yesterday prove that Son is just as capable of scoring with his left.

Including the two goals on Sunday, Son has scored a total of 89 goals in the Premier League. Of the 89 goals, 85 were scored with his feet and 37 of those were with his left, meaning that 44 percent of his goals were scored with his left foot. This puts Son within two shots of the Premier League record of 39 goals made with a player’s weaker foot, shared by Harry Kane and Van Persie.

But in terms of proportion, Son has the highest proportion of goals scored with his weaker foot of all players in the Premier League.

This season alone, however, that proportion is higher. Son has scored 19 goals this season, 11 of which were scored with his left foot.

“If I’m honest, I practiced so many shots especially in this position,” said Son about his second goal scored with his left foot after the match on Sunday.

“Because when I was a kid I knew I am going to play winger, so even left foot, right foot, I tried so many shots from there. So, especially when I score in this position, I am more than happy because hard work pays off it feels like because I tried so many shots from there. So this is my favorite position.”

Sunday’s win keeps Spurs solidly in the race for a top four finish this season, although Arsenal also won their game against West Ham 2-1, so Tottenham remain in fifth place.

With only the top four teams qualifying for the Champions League each season, finishing within the top four is crucial for the Premier League’s top clubs. Tottenham are currently two points behind Arsenal in fifth place, but it’s all up for grabs for with four games left.

Spurs face a serious challenge next week as they take on Liverpool at Anfield, before facing Arsenal in a crucial North London derby on May 12.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]