Por: Inside The World Cup
The former poster-boy of South Korean football has been reduced to an embarrassed outcast at Arsenal, but he could yet find World Cup redemption in Brazil
This article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2014 Experts’ Network, a co-operation between 32 of the best media organisations from the countries who have qualified for the finals in Brazil. theguardian.com is running previews from four countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 12 June.
Not long ago East Asian countries sent teenage prospects to Brazil for some samba osmosis. Kazu Miura famously went there as a 15-year-old in 1982 (and incredibly he’s still playing in Japan’s second division), one-time (literally) Everton player Li Weifeng left China for South America while Park Chu-young also did a stint.
Despite being supported financially by the Korean powerhouse club Pohang Steelers, Park returned home to sign professional terms with the rival club FC Seoul, upsetting a number of people. It set the scene for his career. The Arsenal striker who rarely plays, almost never speaks and has an IQ close to 160 is a genius for rubbing people up the wrong way.
Returning to Brazil a decade later gives the 28-year-old what is probably a final chance to ensure that his reputation, in Korea at least, is seen as a largely positive one. It is his chance to put the troubles of the past three years behind him, to punctuate the ongoing Arsenal nightmare with the biggest of asterisks to signify that, while he may have played just seven minutes of Premier League football since signing for the London club in August 2011, he helped to take his country to the knockout stages of the 2014 World Cup.
He’s done it before, though he was playing regularly for Monaco in France then. In South Africa, he scored a free-kick, not an easy thing to do with the jabulani ball, in the thrilling final group game with Nigeria. That 2-2 draw took the Taeguk Warriors to the second round for the first time on foreign soil. Park went on to have a good third season in France, though his 12 goals couldn’t prevent Monaco’s relegation. Anyway, he wanted Champions League football. The French title-winners Lille were ready to offer that but a quick phone call from Arsène Wenger changed everything. Fans at home were pleasantly surprised. It was the last time that the country was united in its support behind him.
The first had come at the Asian Youth Championships in 2004 as he won the Golden Ball, the MVP award and led the team to the title. He was quick, technically excellent, strong in the air and linked the attack intelligently. Then came a sensational appearance at a Qatari tournament. Park was named as Asia’s Young Player of the Year, confirming his status as the continent’s brightest prospect. In his first season in the K-League, everywhere FC Seoul went, attendances quadrupled and more. By the end, his face was on the front of that year’s Fifa game in Korea and all over newspapers who had bestowed the nickname ‘football genius’. This ‘Park syndrome’ lasted just a season, but it was a crazy season.
Ian Porterfield, the former Chelsea manager and coach at Busan Icons at the time, said: “He has the talent and great technique and speed. It’s the complete package. He just needs to work hard and keep improving and his future will lie at a big European club.” Shortly after – perhaps unsurprisingly given Porterfield’s CV, Chelsea were linked with the then 18-year-old and when, just after signing Park Ji-sung in July 2005, Alex Ferguson said that Manchester United were following the exploits of another “Korean boy”, everyone in Korea knew who was being talked about.
By that time, the teenager was a fully-fledged international, scoring a last-minute equaliser in June 2005 on his debut as Korea picked up a vital World Cup qualification point in Uzbekistan. A goal in his second game days later in Kuwait earned the team a place at the 2006 finals in Germany, where the then 20 year-old played just the once. Still one out of three games seems like a feast compared to his Arsenal famine.
Such inactivity doesn’t mean he has been out of the headlines back in Seoul, far from it. Near the end of his first season in London, there were calls for Park to be kicked out of the national team. Military service loomed large over his European hopes. A near two-year spell that was due to start at the end of 2013 meant that time was running out. In spring 2012, his lawyers played a blinder. A little-known loophole provided by his three years in Monaco enabled the striker to delay his national duty by a decade.
Some countries with conscription allow deferments or exemption to footballers, especially if they move overseas. South Korea, still technically at war with its northern neighbour and where the national team trains a mile away from the most heavily fortified border on the planet, does not. For years, the millions who have served have seethed as the sons of the rich and powerful have often managed to get out of it. Here was a footballer perceived to be using his status to do the same. In the end, he had to say sorry.
“I understand there was a massive controversy since I have postponed my military service. I first want to apologise to all the people who have felt left down by me,” Park said at a press conference in June 2012. “I have already promised several times that I will carry out my national service, and I really will. I want to apologise to all the soldiers who are serving the nation at this moment.”
The then national team coach, Choi Kang-hee, whose initial resistance to taking the national team job in December 2011 was worn down by a persistent KFA and a few bottles of that potent rice spirit soju, started to push Park out of the picture. Plenty agreed, after all, he was barely playing (though he had a loan spell with Celta Vigo in 2012-13 that started quite well but faded, and a recent move to Watford that never really started at all).
But the arrival of Hong Myong-bo as the new national coach in July 2013 was a stroke of luck for Park. The charismatic 2002 World Cup captain was the boss of the 2012 Olympic team in which he had called the [London-based] striker in as an overage player. Fairly quiet until the final bronze-medal match with Japan, he made the difference when it mattered. Not long before the break, he evaded the attention of four blue shirts and scored from the edge of the area. It wasn’t about beating their biggest rivals on the world stage, it wasn’t just about the medal, it was about the get out of the army free card handed to any Korean athlete to climb on an Olympic podium.
Now he is set to lead the line in Brazil, and not because, as some claim, he went to the same Korea University as coach Hong, but because there are not many other options that have presented themselves since Park’s club career slowed to a crawl. A Park in form makes a big difference to Korea’s chances of the last 16, the question is what kind of form he is going to be in. His selection in the final 23, while not a surprise, has been met with a very mixed reaction.
He has no relationship with individual journalists, reducing support in controversial times but when reporting for World Cup duty in May, he could not avoid the waiting media scrum demanding opinions about the controversy over his call-up. “It is a natural reaction,” the player admitted. “If the country doesn’t want me then there is no reason for me to play but if they trust me, I will do my best. My experience is important but giving everything on the pitch is more important. More than leading the team, I want to be a senior player who pushes his team-mates in the right direction.”
A recall against Greece in March showed why Hong still has faith. Despite his rustiness, Park beat the offside trap early in Athens and lashed a fierce half-volley home. Millions will still cheer any goal this June but it is not just about World Cup glory, it is about Park Chu-young’s place in history. He has much to prove.