Why Harry Kane will surrender his third Golden Boot to Mo Salah

Despite all the attention being on new Premier League champions Manchester City, the dust has far from settled around Harry Kane’s recent goal controversy.

In a clash against Stoke where Tottenham won 2-1, Christian Eriksen signed the game off with a wonderful free kick. But following the result, Kane took to Twitter to announce that he would be claiming his teammate’s goal for himself.

The two time Golden Boot winner has argued that he got a last minute touch on the ball before it passed Jack Butland. Kane and Tottenham have appealed against Eriksen and have asked for the deemed goal scorer to be reconsidered.

Video evidence shows that Kane does not get a touch on the ball but after swearing on his daughter’s life, the FA have agreed to tally the goal as his.

 

Real competition 

Newest Premier League dominator Mohamed Salah has exceeded all expectations that waited for him when he signed for Liverpool last June.

His impressive 29 goals and 17 assists during his two seasons with Roma had fans licking their lips. But his current record breaking stats have completely blown everyone away.

Salah is now the highest scoring African player to ever feature in the Premier League. He has now surpassed Didier Drogba’s record of 29 goals in a single season. Salah has also smashed Liverpool FC history by having the most prolific season of any other player - topping Luis Suarez, Fernando Torres and Robbie Fowler.

At the start of this season, the main Golden Boot competitors were Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and Sergio Aguero. Dark horse Salah has left Aguero and Lukaku in the dust and is now five clear of Kane. But who’s to say the reigning top scorer won’t bag his third year? Well here’s exactly why he won’t catch up to the Egyptian goal machine.

When addressing the stats of the two forwards, Salah pips Kane at being the more clinical player. In 32 matches, Salah has scored a gargantuan 30 goals - this averages to a goal every 86 minutes. Granted, Kane has played one less game but he is still five goals short of matching the Egyptian.

Salah’s pass rate (78%) exceeds Kane’s (72%) and he averages at 4.23 shots per goal to Kane’s 6.52. Not only is the Liverpool winger a lot less wasteful with his shots but he’s also a better team player too. Salah has assisted nine goals this season in comparison to just two for Harry Kane. The Spurs striker has also been carded five times this campaign as opposed to Salah who is yet to see his name go in the book.

But not everything is about stats - the recent attitude of both players reveals the type of players they are. Harry Kane shocked the footballing world after he appealed against Eriksen, causing upset in the dressing room and a lot of disapproval from peers and pundits.

The likes of Jamie Vardy, Gary Lineker and even the official Tranmere Rovers Twitter have made comments both mocking and showing disappointment in Kane’s selfishness. Mohamed Salah’s attitude on and off the pitch is nothing short of humble.

His recent interview after the 5-0 Watford thrashing shows him giving all credit to his teammates for the goals he has scored so far.

 

Harry ‘Claim’

No other statements have surfaced regarding Kane and Eriksen’s relationship but I can only imagine it’s on the rocks. Despite not being a Golden Boot contender, Eriksen is still one of Tottenham’s best players and deserves as much credit as Kane.

For the club to appeal against one of their players to favour another is disgusting. Favouritism should not be a part of any team’s mentality.

Despite there still being games for Kane to score more goals, he and Spurs have royally thrown Christian Eriksen under the bus. I couldn’t imagine playing for a team who completely disregard your effort by handing your goal over to someone else.

To make matters worse, the England international couldn’t bag a goal against Man City in their most recent fixture. Instead, it was Eriksen who netted Tottenham’s only goal of the day. Could the high tensions within the team have contributed to their loss?

Kane is fuelled completely by winning the Golden Boot at the end of the season.

His dedication is admirable but the heated race has gone to his head. His play against City seemed extremely desperate, as though he was playing for a goal for himself and not the team’s win.

A lot of his credit has disappeared after this whole goal claiming charade. His arrogance has really shone through, especially in the nonchalance of his actions. Salah’s calm and effortless approach to football will carry him over the finish line and it’s the least he deserves.

When Salah is awarded the Golden Boot following his debut season and Kane loses out to a winger, it will be interesting to see how he responds and what will become of his relationship with his Danish teammate.

 

Written by Georgia Goulding

Follow Georgia on Twitter @gjgoulding

Check out her excellent football blog: Football, Findings and Fiction

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