Good article on Wood.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/...
Pretty impressive list he's found himself on:
The top goalscorers in the English Premier League since the 2017-18 season
65-Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
58-Harry Kane (Tottenham), Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
55-Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
46-Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)
44-Eden Hazard (Chelsea) *
43-Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
34-Roberto Firmino (Liverpool)
32-Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal)
31-Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
30-Chris Wood (Burnley), Son Heung-Min (Tottenham)
Wood is such an under appreciated player in the premiership
He's also a hugely under appreciated sportsman in NZ, which is the whole gist of Tony Smith's article.
There is probably a 100 countries in the world where if they had someone who had banged in 30 EPL goals, he would be a national treasure. Imagine the profile if he was Chinese!
I'm currently in Peru. Here they hero worship Pablo Guerrero. His every move (goals, girl friends, new tatts etc etc) is almost reported daily. Yet no disrespect he left the Bundesliga for Brazil (where he still plays) in 2012. Scored 41 goals in the German top flight, but it's generally considered from what I gather, he didn't fulfil his full potential there. Yet he still remains the most high profile footballer in a country of 32 million.
The Woodsman probably don't care, but in NZ he will likely only be fully appreciated once his career is over. Maybe a long long wait before another Kiwi is scoring goals regularly in the EPL.
And yeah Smith is right, NZ Football get off your arse and nominate him for NZ Sportsman of the year.