Son Heung-min and Salah scored 23 goals each, tying for the top scorer title at that time. However, unlike Salah, who had 9 penalty goals, Son Heung-min shared the scoring title with pure field goals and no penalties.
He was the only player in Premier League history to have set a record of being a top scorer with '0 penalties.' Yet, Son Heung-min's name has disappeared from the Transfermarkt graphic.
Fans from around the world expressed their outrage. Comments poured in with phrases such as, "Where is Son Heung-min?", "How can he be omitted as a joint top scorer?", "Salah's 9 penalty goals versus Son Heung-min's pure 100% field goals", and "Isn’t this racial discrimination?" The omission of Son Heung-min is being interpreted as a signal of discrimination, not just a simple mistake.
The issue is that this is not the first time. Transfermarkt has a precedent of deliberately omitting certain players from the list of joint top scorers. For instance, in the 2010-2011 season, Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov both scored 20 goals to share the top spot, but the graphic only displayed Tevez. In the 2018-2019 season, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sadio Mane, and Mohamed Salah all shared the top scorer title with 22 goals, yet only Salah appeared on the list. This means Salah has been disproportionately highlighted among the co-winners.
Transfermarkt has not specified the criteria used to compile this list. However, the omission of co-top scorer Son Heung-min, especially when every potential winner has been included in seasons when Salah was the recipient, has raised significant criticisms regarding the lack of consistency.
The process of Son Heung-min winning the top scorer title in the 2021-2022 season was nothing short of a drama. Ahead of the final round, Son Heung-min had 21 goals, while Salah had 22 goals. In the season's last match, Tottenham seized the early advantage against relegation-threatened Norwich City. Son Heung-min attempted several shots early in the match but was thwarted by the goalkeeper, and team members focused on supporting him.
Dejan Kulusevski passed to Son Heung-min even in clear scoring situations. The entire team worked towards Son Heung-min's ascension as the top scorer.
Ultimately, Son Heung-min recorded multiple goals, finishing the season with 23 goals, while Salah also added to his tally on the same day, sharing the glory of being joint top scorers. However, the nature of their goals was completely different. All of Son Heung-min's goals came solely from open play. He won the Golden Boot without ever receiving a penalty kick, thanks to Harry Kane, who took all penalty duties. This is a record that is hard to find a precedent for in Premier League history.
However, as of June 2025, Son Heung-min was not present in the graphic of the world's largest football statistics platform, Transfermarkt. The controversy surrounding this issue is too significant to dismiss as a mere oversight. The growing suspicion among fans stems from the repeated omissions and the recurring highlighting of certain players.
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