HE’S OUR SONALDO!
Mourinho: Son’s fantastic... his goal reminded me of Brazil legend’s worldie in 1996
JOSE MOURINHO likened Heung-min Son to Brazil legend Ronaldo after an unforgettable goal ramped up the heat on a burgeoning bromance.
The Portuguese boss declared within days of arriving at Tottenham that he’d already fallen for the South Korea star.
But after watching the role Son played in demolishing Burnley and seeing him run from one box to the other with the ball at his feet to score a quite brilliant solo goal, those feelings had Mourinho making comparisons with the 1994 and 2002 World Cup winner Ronaldo Nazario.
Mourinho said: “Even before this goal, my son calls him ‘Son-aldo’. ‘Son-aldo Nazario’.
“And today he was ‘Son-aldo Nazario’, because the only thing that came to my mind was the goal where I had the honour to be sitting next to Sir Bobby Robson – Compostela versus Barcelona, 1996 – and Ronaldo Nazario got the ball behind the midfield line and scored a very similar goal to Son.
“Amazing goal.
“I remember speaking to Sir Alex Ferguson about Ji-sung Park. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing with South Korean players being very coachable – they like to learn and are very humble.
“My experience of Son is fantastic.
“On Friday, I met the parents and I understood also where it comes from.
“The kid is fantastic and I’m so happy.
“But, important, important was the performance, result, goals, happiness with the fans, happiness with the team, young boys coming from the bench, the debut of a 17-year-old kid, a clean sheet.
“Everything was really good and tomorrow the boys have their first day off for a long, long time.
“It was the perfect match for them to enjoy and to have their day off.”
On another day, Harry Kane would have taken all the plaudits for two fine goals, the first a 30-yard screamer after just four minutes and the second, from just inside the Burnley box, was still rising when it hit the net.
Lucas Moura made it 2-0 inside 10 minutes and when sizzling Son, presented with the trophy for Asian Player of the Year by Park before the game, scored his beauty just after the half-hour mark, Burnley didn’t appear to know what was hitting them.
“We should have made a technical foul, which we didn’t,” said Burnley boss Sean Dyche. “It was very naive of us not to stop it at source.”
He added: “We gave the ball away for fun. The five goals all came from five giveaways.
“Credit to them for that, but they were key giveaways.”
Kane’s fourth came soon after the break and in the 74th minute Moussa Sissoko wrapped things up with another fine goal, poking it home after a lovely one-two with his captain.
One criticism of Mourinho is that his teams sit on one- or two-goal leads, but they didn’t this time. They went for the jugular. Another is that he doesn’t give youth a chance, so no wonder he was keen to draw attention to the fact he’d sent on Troy Parrott
shortly before the end here.
Son had the match ball but his manager relieved him of it and handed it to the 17-year-old.
Asked why, Mourinho said: “Because it was his debut, 17-years-old, his debut in the Premier League, and if he has the chance to have the ball of his debut…
“Sometimes it’s for the guy who scores a hat-trick but it has a much bigger meaning for the 17-year-old boy who last week was playing in youth Champions League with kids of his age and today played for Tottenham in the Premier League.”
This game won’t be remembered as Parrott’s debut, though, but the day Son scored as good a goal as any you will ever see.
Son said: “I tried to pass it to Dele Alli but I couldn’t find him so I just kept going. I am happy to score this goal.
“It was brilliant today. We created chances and were clinical. We deserved the three points. An unbelievable performance.”