The long waiting time of son Heung – minute on a senior trophy ended with a bump and a scratch – literally.
The captain Tottenham lifted the Europa League trophy on Wednesday evening, while Spurs ended their 17-year-old Hoodoo with a 1-0 win over Manchester United thanks to the goal of Brennan Johnson.
But the attacker, who started the game on the couch before replacing Richarlison, was not donated after 16 years of waiting for silverware after 16 years of his career.
The first son was denied a medal when UEFA had their allocation for the ceremony, so that he, Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur, stayed behind to do the formal trophy lift without, although they received a little later.
Then, at one point, he took a blow just above the eye after a teammate accidentally pushed his forehead into the trophy.
Son showed his wound, still smiling, in a video about the social media of Tottenham and said: 'Look at it!
'I lift [the trophy]Someone pushed me and I hit [my head] On the trophy. '
It is not clear who exactly caused the accident, but the son could touch his head after passing the trophy.
The accident left a clear bruise that was still visible on Thursday morning when he left the team hotel to greet fans and go on board the team bus.
This was the first trophy that son was lifted as a senior player, although he won the Asian games with the South Korea under 23's in 2018.
This was also the first trophy of Tottenham since 2008, when Juande Ramos led 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 the legendary status.
“Nobody did it seventeen years. So with such great players, yes today is the day. I will probably say today that I am a legend of this club.
“I feel great. This is what I have always dreamed for and today is the day it happened. Dream really came, really … I am the happiest man in the world. '
At least he finally received his medal. UEFA delivered him, Romero and Bentancur, their prices in the dressing room.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin presented players for the trophy lift, but, as the last Spurs players are approaching, an almost imperceptible appearance of panic on his face and he took a look at other officials.
The stock of medals was driven dry. Son would not have bling for his big trophy lift.
UEFA stated that the problem was caused by Tottenham who sent too many people to receive their medals during the ceremony.
Under UEFA's competitive regulations for the Europa League, both the winning team and second place with 50 medals receive.
The medals can be awarded to players and staff, without requirements for their number of performances in the competition.
UEFA, however, informed clubs that only 30 medals would be presented on stage to players on each side.
The remaining 20 would then be given to the club after the ceremony to distribute.
'To our great displeasure, we had not enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremonies presentation because of an unexpected discrepancy in the number of players, because more team members – including injured players – participates in the ceremony than initially expected,' read a UEFA statement.
“The missing medals were immediately delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincere apologies for supervision.”
Tottenham had sent their 23-man MatchDay team to receive medals, together with injured stars, including James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Bergvall.
Several players who had a limited involvement in the campaign, such as Sergio Regulion, who did not play for a minute, were among those who were presented early with medals.
“I am not registered, but they have brought medals for everyone,” Regulion told the Spanish television after the game.
“They told me that they had 50 medals for everyone who came, and here I am with the same medal, even though I didn't play.”