Golden Boot winners Salah and Son prove African and Asian players among the world’s best

The English Premier League came into existence in the summer of 1992, just as two of its future stars were being born: Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min, who now share the Golden Boot for the 2021-22 season.

It has been won jointly before, sometimes by three players.

That was the case in the 1997-98 season when the local trio of Chris Sutton, Michael Owen, and Dion Dublin all found the target 18 times each.

Twenty years later, Salah was the best and the following season the Egyptian topped the charts along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Liverpool team-mate Sadio Mane in a special time for African football. This time, however, after a three-way and solo success, the 29-year-old Egyptian collects his third award but shares it with South Korean Son, it is a noticeable pairing.

Salah and Son have scored 23 goals over the campaign that finished on Sunday, with Liverpool finishing second behind Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur taking fourth, and the last UEFA Champions League spot, above rivals Arsenal.

Of the top two goalscorers in the most popular league in the world, one is African and one is from Asia. It shows the global power of football and the talent that exists in all corners of the world. Such a thing would have been almost unthinkable 25 years ago.

Salah’s goal-scoring exploits have become so commonplace that fans and media can forget just how impressive they are. The former Chelsea and Roma star now matches Alan Shearer’s record with a third Premier League golden boot. He has now scored 118 goals in 180 games in the competition. Such consistency over five seasons, his lowest total was 19 back in 2019-20, is truly impressive.

This is the first such prize for Son and comes after his best season for