Park Chu-Young

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Park Joo-Young
Date of birth	July 10, 1985
Place of birth	Daegu, South Korea
Height	1.83 m
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	FC Seoul
Youth clubs
2004	Korea University
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2005-Current	FC Seoul	60 (26)
National team²
2005-Current	South Korea	20 (7)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 Feb 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 23 June 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Park Chu-Young (박주영 Park Chu-young, born July 10, 1985) is a South Korean footballer who was awarded the "AFC Young Player of the Year" by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 2004. He plays as a striker & winger for FC Seoul and South Korea. He is considered to be a very fast player, who has a good passing ability, is able to take free kicks and can shoot with great accuracy.

[edit] Career

Park Chu-young's popularity with the Korean public was sparked by his stellar performance at the 2004 Asia Youth Championships where he led the U-20 Korean national team to a record-breaking 11th title. In the process, he swept the Golden Ball Award and was chosen Most Valuable Player of the tournament. He was also capped for the South Korean U-20 team at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.

The country's "Park Chu-young" hysteria grew even more wildly when Korea's U-20 squad participated in the Qatar eight-team invitational in January 2005. Scoring nine goals in four games, Park had two against China, three against Ukraine, two against Algeria, and two against Japan as Korea won the tournament.

After a great start at 2004 Asia Youth Champinonship, he joined the South Korea national football team in June of 2005. His debut was against Uzbekistan, where he managed to score his first goal for the side and saw the Red Devils (the Koreans' official fan club) start calling him "Football Genius".

Park signed with FC Seoul in 2005. In Park's first season, he scored 18 goals and gave 4 assists in 30 appearances, earning the K-League's best young player title and becoming top scorer of that competition.^{[citation needed]}

After Park's successful 2005 season, the Korean public hoped he would continue to show his good form in the 2006 World Cup, but he ended up playing in only one game: the third and final match of the group stage, against Switzerland. Park played mere 63 minutes, receiving a yellow card for running into one of the Swiss players while helping out in the defense, which resulted in Philippe Senderos' header in the 23rd minute.^{[citation needed]}

Notwithstanding his less-than-stellar performance at the World Cup, it was expected by Korean supporters that Park would re-encounter his best game while playing in K-League, but this was not the case, as he notched only 8 goals and 1 assist in 30 appearances during the 2006 season.^{[citation needed]}

He rejoined Korea for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, where he had a great start by scoring 2 goals against Bangladesh. However, he failed to score again in that competition and Korea won no medals at the tournament. They lost to Iraq in the first semi-finals match and were also unable to beat Iran in the third-place match.^{[citation needed]}

Media and fans were also giving Park a hard time during the 2006 season over his weak performances. Many have said that he does not deserve the title of "Football Genius", given to him during a spectacular 2005 season. Many fans criticized him for his goal ceremony, which is praying (because he is devout Christian), many non-Christians or fans who just do not like Park has criticized him for his goal ceremony, many were saying that they did not like seeing Park praying, because it is rude for those who are not Christians.^{[citation needed]}

He has publicly stated his wish to play in the Premiership ever since he was young, but his meager playing time and unimpressive performances during the 2006 World Cup and the 2006 K-League season have hurt his stock, and it seems European teams have put Park off their radar for now, but Park is staying optimistic as he hopes to have a better 2007 season, when he will be playing in the K-League and is likely going to appear in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.^{[citation needed]}

He became a subject of heavy criticism when he "belly slammed" a Yemenite footballer during an international match between Yemen and South Korea.^[1] Park reportedly stated that their chests merely touched, but the Yemenite grabbed his head and fell so that Park would be carded.^[2] His behavior was reprimanded by Pim Verbeek and it will put the Korean team in a disadvantage in a match against the United Arab Emirates, but the response from his fans was positive, many claiming that the "aggressive is a necessary trait to grow" and "the Chinese referee was biased against the Koreans." ^[3]

[edit] Trivia

Park Chu Young is one of the most wanted players on the Pro Evolution Soccer series in a Master League. This is mainly because of the low asking price and his future potential to become one of the best players on the game.

[edit] References

^ Daum.net 베어벡 "박주영, 프로답지 못한 행동했다." Retrieved February 31, 2007.
^ 박주영, "가슴끼리 맞부딪쳤을 뿐인데..."
^ 박주영, 예멘전퇴장 '순둥이 이미지' 벗다...팬들 "괜찮아"지지

Preceded by Yoshito Okubo	Asian Young Footballer of the Year 2004	Succeeded by Choe Myong-Ho

	South Korea squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Lee Woon‑Jae \| 2 Kim Young‑Chul \| 3 Kim Dong‑Jin \| 4 Choi Jin‑Cheul \| 5 Kim Nam‑Il \| 6 Kim Jin‑Kyu \| 7 Park Ji‑Sung \| 8 Kim Doo‑Hyun \| 9 Ahn Jung‑Hwan \| 10 Park Chu‑Young \| 11 Seol Ki‑Hyeon \| 12 Lee Young‑Pyo \| 13 Lee Eul‑Yong \| 14 Lee Chun‑Soo \| 15 Baek Ji‑Hoon \| 16 Chung Kyung‑Ho \| 17 Lee Ho \| 18 Kim Sang‑Sik \| 19 Cho Jae‑Jin \| 20 Kim Yong‑Dae \| 21 Kim Young‑Kwang \| 22 Song Chong‑Gug \| 23 Cho Won‑Hee \| Coach: Advocaat