Harry Kane and not Heung-min Son being on POTY lists does not mean racism – just that we can pinpoint when uninterested players voted.
Son Heung-min is not on the PFA Player of the Year shortlist. Given how the season turned out, that is clearly ridiculous. But does it matter and should you care? Not really, and that’s why we’re going to spend about 700 words talking about it.
The absurdity of Son’s absence from the list is heightened by Harry Kane’s presence on it. The case for Kane as one of the best players of the season is flaky but just about makeable; the case for Kane ahead of Son is non-existent.
But that’s because we’re looking at it from the vantage point of June, knowing that Son would turn his good season into a sensational one that would ultimately propel Spurs into the top four while Kane played second fiddle.
23 – Son Heung-min scored 23 non-penalty goals in the Premier League in 2021-22, five more than any other player:
23 – Son Heung-min
18 – Mohamed Salah
16 – Sadio Mané
15 – Jota, KDB, Vardy, Ronaldo
Curious. pic.twitter.com/Slf9xNrRfN
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 1, 2022
Some have hinted that racism might explain why Son has been overlooked. There’s certainly a case that on an institutional level it’s a factor in how little problem Spurs have faced in keeping one of the league’s very best players over the last couple of seasons, in how little concerted effort any other club has made to sign him.
But while it might be a background reason for the ongoing underratedness of Son, even as we reach a point where noting that underratedness has itself become a cliché and we’ve also used the very ugly word underratedness far too many times in this, it’s not much of a factor here.
Fundamentally, footballers just really don’t give much thought to their nominations. It’s a gross generalisation, but as a group we just can’t imagine them poring over stats and studying FBref to reach their conclusions. They vote for…
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