Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has revealed that losing out on last season’s Premier League Golden Boot to Tottenham’s Harry Kane inspired him to elevate his game this term.
Salah and Spurs ace Heung-min Son shared the award this season after both finished with 23 goals each, while the Reds man also scooped up the Playmaker prize with 13 assists (BBC Sport).
Son scored twice on the final day in Tottenham’s 5-0 thrashing of Norwich, but Salah caught up to the South Korean with a late strike as Liverpool beat Wolves 3-1.
The Egypt international has now claimed the award on three occasions, notching it in his first Liverpool season in 2017-18 with 32 goals and also in the 2018-19 campaign, where it was shared three ways between Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
But last season, Salah missed out altogether on the final day to Kane, who ended the year with one goal more than his competitor.
And Salah has now admitted the ‘pain’ caused by losing out to the England captain gave him extra motivation to come back and re-claim the award.
He told BT Sport: “When I signed here I can’t say I expected myself to go on and win three golden boots. But in the first year, I was fighting with Kane at the beginning and then I said: ‘I have a big chance to win it’.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“So when I won it from Kane and he had won it two years before, I went on holiday and said: ‘Why not? You won it from Kane and he is top goalscorer, so give it a try for a second one’.
“I won it a second year and after that I said: ‘You’ve got to go for four or five’.
“For five years I’ve always competed for it, I lost last year in the last game against Kane. Last year was painful, that’s what pushed me to be who I am now this year.
“I believe that last season as a team was not really good, but to win the golden boot in the last game with one goal difference? That’s not good.
“I was so motivated, I was working like crazy in the summer. I said: ‘Next year I’m going to win both things, the golden boot and assists’. I was working like crazy to win both.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It says a lot about Salah’s competitiveness that losing out to Kane last season made him come back with more drive than before.
No doubt Kane will be looking to do the same himself after missing out this term and hopefully with a better start to the season he can do just that.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
