‘EPL Golden Boot → Serie A winner’s medal’ Now a popular ‘trophy entry’…Who’s next?
Golden home.
Items for returning Korean players are getting more and more flashy.
In early June, when the European football season ended, Korean players returning to their hometown Korea after playing a big role in Europe for a season held valuable trophies in their hands. This is a picture that would have been difficult to imagine just a few years ago. Now I’m looking forward to who the next main character will be.
The first start was made by Son Heung-min (30, Tottenham). Son Heung-min held the ‘Golden Boot’ trophy in both hands when entering the country through Incheon International Airport on May 24 last year. This trophy is given to the top scorer in the English Premier League (EPL).
Son Heung-min scored 23 goals in 35 EPL games in the 2021-22 season and won the joint top scorer with Mohamed Salah (Liverpool). This is the moment when the first Asian player to become the top scorer in the history of the top 5 European leagues was born. Son Heung-min went down in history as one of the few cases in which he did not score a penalty kick (PK) among all goals. Salah scored 5 of his 23 goals as a penalty.
About a year later, on the 5th, this time, Kim Min-jae (26, Naples) opened the Incheon International Airport arrivals hall with a trophy. Kim Min-jae hung an Italian Serie A championship medal around his neck and held up the Serie A best defense award trophy with both hands.스포츠토토
The Serie A championship is the first record in Korea, and the best defense award is the first record in Asia. What’s even more surprising is that this season was Kim Min-jae’s first season in the European big leagues. Kim Min-jae, who played for Jeonbuk Hyundai in the K-League, Beijing in the Chinese Super League (CSL), and Fenerbahçe in the Turkiye Super League, has been in Serie A for less than a year.
When Kim Min-jae came out with a golden medal and trophy, hundreds of fans greeted him at the scene shouting “Kim! Kim! Kim!” he exclaimed. Kim Min-jae smiled shyly. He smiled and posed at the request of the photojournalist, “Please ask for a medal with your mouth.”
Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae, the main pillars of Korean soccer, presented valuable trophies at intervals of one year. It is a valuable treasure for individual players, but it is also a treasure that will be remembered for a long time in Korean soccer history. Naturally, the anticipation of who will be next and what trophy will be next is growing.