Ji-Sung Park

Ji-Sung Park's looks (http://img.skysports.com/08/09/218x298/Manchester-United-2008-Photocall-JiSung-Park_1229927.jpg)

Ji-Sung Park is a Korean soccer player who runs as a midfielder, and he is my hero. He was born February 25, 1981 and decided to play soccer when he was younger because he saw Dunga and Jung-Hwan Yoon’s playing. He learned his skills from the school soccer team. However, he was not in a good situation for playing soccer because he had a disadvantage: he was flat-footed. Flat-footed usually makes it hard to run because of the foot’s shape, but Park overcame his disadvantage and now he has grown up to be a great athlete.

Ji_Sung Park worked hard to become a soccer player. He kept practicing and practicing after school and finally, “the hard work paid off in 2002 when Park was chosen for his country’s World Cup team. Playing every game in South Korea’s extraordinary run to the semi-finals, the 176-cm-tall winger became a national hero when he scored the winning goal in a critical game against Portugal” (Park Ji Sung: Pocket Battleship)

That was the time when Park’s life changed. After the World Cup, he followed Hiddink, who coached the South Korea team during the 2002 World Cup, to PSV, Netherlands league team (Manchester United Official Web Site). In PSV, Park played well and because of that, Sir Alex, the coach of Manchester United, a Premier League Team, picked and signed Park to his team. At that time, Park was the first Korean who signed with the Premier League team. After he joined, he became a key player and made a total of 15 goals in 148 games (Manchester United official Web Site).

Park is running for the ball (http://www.zimbio.com)

Ji-Sung Park is a national hero because he showed that Koreans can play in the Premier League even though he is flat-footed. He was very small and weak when he was younger, but he overcame his disadvantages and became a member of the best team in the world. By Park’s Joining, the soccer officials started to give more opportunities to the Asian players and now, there are lots of Asians who run in the Premier League.

I admire Park because he gives hope to young kids who want to be soccer players. When the kids grow up, they will see Park’s success and think that they can run in the European League too. Also, I admire him because he didn’t change. Some soccer players don’t do their best after they sign a contract for millions of dollars. But Park still does his best and doesn’t get lazy on the team even though he has earned lots of money. He has used his money to donate to poor kids. Thus, Park has shown that anything can be possible and he is my hero.