Son not on the list of England’s best 11 footballers

Tottenham Hotspur’s striker Son Heung-min (picture), who became the first Asian player to become the top scorer in the English Premier League (EPL), was excluded from this season's “Team of the Year” announced by the England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) on Friday. “Son Heung-min not making the best 11 is causing a lot of controversy,” The Daily Mail said. “On social media, football fans have slammed the ‘criminal’ omission of Son Heung-min from the PFA Team of the Year.”

Goalkeeper Alisson Becker (Liverpool), full-back João Cavaco Cancelo (Man City), Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea), Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), midfielder Kevin De Bruyne (Man City), Thiago Alcântara (Liverpool), Bernardo Silva (Man City), forward Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané (Liverpool) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) made this season’s PFA Team of the Year.

Son was not among the six nominees in contention for the Player of the Year announced by the PFA on the 2nd either. He had been selected as the Team of the Year by the EPL Secretariat and picked in the Team of the Year by major local media outlets including BBC and Sky Sports. Son Heung-min was excluded only from the awards voted by PFA players.

For the PFA Player of the Year awards, players from England’s 92 clubs each get a vote, including 20 EPL clubs and 72 English Football League clubs. The Team of the Year is only made up of votes from players playing in each league. Voting for a teammate on the same team is prohibited. Regarding the recent PFA voting, The Athletic, an English-American sports media outlet, wrote, "Athletes who are busy playing every week are often unaware of the performance of other players. It is highly likely that they will choose a well-known player like Ronaldo,” pointing out the issues with the current voting system.

Other local British media cannot seem to understand the reason behind Son's exclusion from the Team of the Year. Evening Standard, a British local newspaper, wrote, “Son Heung-min, who scored 23 non-penalty goals in the EPL, got beat by Salah and Ronaldo. He was overlooked again.” Goal.com, a global media outlet, also asked, “What more does Son Heung-min have to do?”

The PFA Player of the Year award went to Salah, who shared the Premier League’s Golden Boot with Son Heung-min.


hun@donga.com