Heung-min Son finished 11th in the Ballon D’or rankings, an annual awards ceremony in France that honors the world’s best soccer players.
Son was the only Asian player to be nominated in both the men’s and women’s categories. According to a tweet by talkSPORT, he has now earned the highest ranking by an Asian player in Men’s Ballon d’Or history. Homare Sawa won the FIFA Women’s World Player award at the 2011 Ballon d’Or ceremony.
Son was nominated for the 2022 Ballon D’Or after an outstanding 2021/22 Premier League season with his club team Tottenham Hotspur F.C. He scored 23 goals that season and shared the Golden Boot Awards with Liverpool forward Mo Salah. Five of Salah’s goals were penalty kicks but all of Son’s goals were non-penalty kick goals.
His goals helped his team qualify for the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League. He scored a brace in their recent group-stage game against Eintracht Frankfurt. One of the goals earned UCL Goal of the Week.
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But he’s not American? Even though Son Heung-min plays in England, he still retains his Korean citizenship & even fulfilled a 3-week military service in 2020