Son Heung-min‘s long wait for a senior trophy ended with a bump and a scratch – literally.
The Tottenham captain lifted the Europa League trophy on Wednesday night as Spurs ended their 17-year hoodoo with a 1-0 win over Manchester United thanks to Brennan Johnson’s goal.
But the forward, who started the game on the bench before replacing Richarlison, was not gifted a seamless celebration after 16 years of his career waiting for silverware.
First Son was denied a medal as UEFA ran out of their allocation for the ceremony, leaving him, Cristian Romero, and Rodrigo Bentancur to do the formal trophy lift without one, though they received some later.
Then, at some point, he took a whack just above the eye after a team-mate accidentally pushed his forehead into the trophy.
Son showed off his wound, still smiling, in a video on Tottenham’s social media, saying: ‘Look at this!
Son Heung-min picked up a battle scar during Tottenham’s trophy celebrations on Wednesday
The Spurs captain said that a team-mate accidentally pushed his head into the trophy
‘I lift [the trophy], somebody pushed me, and I hit [my head] on the trophy.’
It is not clear who exactly caused the accident but Son could be seen touching his head after passing the trophy on.
The mishap left a clear bruise which was still visible on Thursday morning as he left the team hotel to greet fans and board the team bus.
This was the first trophy Son has lifted as a senior player, though he did win the Asian Games with South Korea’s Under-23s in 2018.
This was also Tottenham’s first trophy since 2008, when Juande Ramos guided them to a 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the Carling Cup final.
‘Let’s say I’m a legend. Why not? Only today,’ Son told TNT Sports after being asked if he finally qualified for legendary status.
‘Seventeen years, nobody’s done it. So with such amazing players, yeah today’s the day. Probably today I’ll say I’m a legend of this club.
‘I feel amazing. This is what I’ve always dreamed for and today is the day it happened. Dream came really, really true… I’m the happiest man in the world.’
The bruise was just visible in his official photographs with the Europa League trophy
The redness had even lasted into Thursday morning as he boarded the team bus in Bilbao
At least he got his medal in the end. UEFA delivered him, Romero, and Bentancur their prizes in the dressing room.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin presented players with medals ahead of the trophy lift but, as the final Spurs players approach, an almost imperceptible look of panic dawned on his face and he glanced at other officials.
The stash of medals had run dry. Son would have no bling for his big trophy lift.
UEFA have stated the problem was caused by Tottenham sending too many people to receive their medals during the ceremony.
Under UEFA’s competition regulations for the Europa League, both the winning team and runners-up are presented with 50 medals.
The medals can be awarded to players and staff, with no requirements over their number of appearances in the competition.
However, UEFA informed clubs that only 30 medals would be presented on stage to players from each side.
The remaining 20 would then be given to the club post-ceremony to distribute.
Victory over Man United ended Son and Tottenham’s long wait for a trophy to celebrate
Son was forced to wait for a medal after UEFA ran out of their initial allocation for the ceremony
Tottenham partied late into the night as they celebrated their Europa League final victory
A number of the squad’s players were seen celebrating until 3am in the morning on Thursday
‘To our great displeasure, we did not have enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremony presentation due to an unexpected discrepancy in the player count, as more team members – including injured players – participated in the ceremony than initially anticipated,’ a UEFA statement read.
‘The missing medals were promptly delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincerest apologies for the oversight.’
Tottenham had sent their 23-man matchday squad to receive medals, along with injured stars including James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Bergvall.
Several players who had limited involvement in the campaign such as Sergio Regulion, who did not play a minute in the competition, were among those to presented with medals early.
‘I’m not registered, but they’ve brought medals for everyone,’ Regulion told Spanish television post-match.
‘They told me they had 50 medals for everyone who came, and here I am with the same medal even though I didn’t play’.
