Former Arsenal striker Park Chu-young is returning to his native South Korea to rejoin his former team, FC Seoul, in a move that could rejuvenate his career and boost the K-League’s fortunes as the new season gets underway.
The 29-year-old Park was one of the biggest stars in Asian soccer when he left in 2008 to sign with AS Monaco. After three successful seasons in France, he jumped to Arsenal and his form began to slip. He played just seven minutes of Premier League soccer before being released in 2014.
Subsequent loans to Celta Vigo in Spain, Watford in England’s second-tier league and most recently Al Shabab in Saudi Arabia also did not bring a return of his scoring touch.
The low point may have come at the 2014 World Cup. Park, who has scored 24 goals in 65 international appearances, played so dismally in Brazil, he was severely criticized after the tournament and lost his place in the national team.
Despite his difficulties, former national coach Cho Kwang-rae said he believes Park’s move overseas was a positive one and he can still be a playmaker when he returns home.
“He has had a tough time in Europe, but he scored many goals for the national team when I was in charge,” Cho said. “His strengths are shooting and his movement in the space behind defenders. Now he is home with familiar football, culture and teammates, he can recover his form.”
Park is also returning to the team where he had his big breakthrough, winning the K-League’s Rookie of the Year award in 2005.
“Park has made some poor choices in terms of choosing clubs,” FC Seoul coach Choi Yong-soo told Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday. “He is still one of the representative players in Korean soccer however and I have talked to him on the phone and feel that he has matured.”
While Park is looking to revive his career, the K-League is desperate for a star player.
The league has been in the shadow of the South Korean baseball league for years, and in 2011, its reputation was tarnished by a major match-fixing scandal. In recent years, the league has also lost both foreign and domestic talent to the lucrative Chinese Super League, further diminishing interest in the domestic teams.
FC Seoul alone has seen four of its biggest stars go across the Yellow Sea in the past 15 months. If nothing else, it needs a striker now.
“Park still has much to offer,” Choi said. “Skill and technique do not lie.” John Duerden, Seoul , AP
United Arab Emirates to host 2019 Asian Cup
The Asian Football Confederation selected the United Arab Emirates over a bid from Iran to host the 2019 continental champions at its meeting Monday in Manama, Bahrain.
The Asian Cup, which was hosted and won by Australia in January, will be expanded from 16 to 24 teams in the next edition.
AFC president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said there was no doubt the UAE was better equipped than Iran to host the continent’s biggest football event.
“I could say the decision was … not difficult,” he said. “After that we have to be realistic because the UAE’s capabilities are bigger and I wish them success because after what we saw in Australia the championship was successful in every sense. So for sure this is a challenge for our brothers, but I hope the organizing committee put in a more successful event than the previous championship.”
The UAE hosted the Asian Cup in 1996, when it lost the final on penalties against Saudi Arabia.
Yousef Al Serkal, head of the UAE’s football association, said the country’s experience hosting the 2009 and 2010 FIFA Club World Cups and the 2013 under-17 World Cup gave it the edge in the bidding process.
“AFC has belief in the UAE to be able to organize a good Asia Cup because the country had previously well organized the FIFA Youth World Cup and FIFA Club World Cup and received glowing reports,” he said. “All this led to convincing everybody. There also have been many visits to Iran and UAE and at the end the inspecting commissions were convinced the UAE would do a better job.”
The tournament will be held in January, when temperatures are generally cooler in the UAE, with matches played in six venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain. The event will be staged three years before the region is set to host the World Cup for the first time, at Qatar in 2022.
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