Asian Debate: Is Park Chu-Young The Best Asian Striker And Can He Shoot South Korea To World Cup Glory?

Posted Thursday, February 04, 2010 by Goal.com

Last weekend was a good one for Korean stars in Europe. Park Ji-sung scored his first goal of the season as Manchester United went to London to defeat Arsenal 3-1. Lee Chung-yong was Bolton Wanderers’ best player in their 2-0 defeat at Liverpool and Ki Sung-yong returned from injury to play for Celtic.

Best of all though, was a brace from Park Chu-young in AS Monaco’s 3-2 win over Nice.

It is nice to see an Asian name near the top of the goalscoring charts in a major European league as historically, Asian strikers have not exported well.

Another Korean, Cha Bum-keun, has been the most successful to date, scoring 98 goals in the Bundesliga from 1979 to 1988 for Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen. Ali Daei scored in Germany but not at his usual rate, Naohiro Takahara was hot and cold in the same league for Hamburg and Frankfurt and Maksim Shatskikh scored quite a few for Dinamo Kiev.

At the moment, the pickings are slim. Japan’s Takayuki Morimoto is showing a good deal of promises in Serie A with Catania. Time and ability are on the side of the 21 year-old but Park is the forward making headlines at the moment.

The 24 year-old has eight league goals to his name already this season and his club coach believes he can get to 15. That would be some return for a striker with much more to his game than hitting the back of the net and one just as capable of leading the line or playing deeper.

All this is great news for a South Korean team that has long had problems turning possession and chances into goals. With Park in great form, games against Greece, Argentina and Nigeria in June will seem a little less tough.

If that sounds like pressure then young Park is used to that as far as Korea is concerned. If anyone has ever burst on to the scene, it is the boy from Daegu. Named the Young Asian Player of the Year in 2004 after stellar performances at the Asian Youth Championships, Park was a huge star in his homeland even before he turned professional in 2005 and joined FC Seoul. The same year his face adorned covers of FIFA computer games.

Those computer-loving teenagers were tempted out to the stadium whenever Seoul came to town. Clubs around the sudden half of the peninsula reported double or even triple normal attendances because of a visit from Park. He didn’t disappoint at first and scored a hat-trick in his first home game and continued to find the net.

The national team coach of the time Jo Bonfrere tried to resist the calls to select Park but was unable to do and the player made his debut in June 2005 in a vital World Cup qualifier. Park scored the equalizer in the final minute in Uzbekistan and scored again a week later as Korea clinched their place in Germany with a 4-0 win in Kuwait.

That was as good as it got for a while. The Park Syndrome couldn't last. It was tough however on a teenager that had been nicknamed Football Genius (though with a reported IQ of 150, he is not short in the brain department) from the beginning of his career.

Park made it to Germany but didn’t play much and didn’t impress much when he did. Goals dried up at home and confidence fell. The headlines talked of slumps, injuries and losses of form meant that he could no longer count on a starting spot with FC Seoul and when he did make the team, he often found himself on the wing. So the move to Monaco in August 2008 came at the right time. Moving away from the goldfish bowl of Seoul has given the player time and freedom to concentrate on his game. And in the past 18 months, the player has developed into an intelligent all-round striker. His finishing is still not the finished article but is improving all the time.

Refreshingly, Jerome de Bontin the Monaco CEO at the time, admitted that the move was influenced in part by marketing reasons. Around the same time, another former continental wonderboy in the shape of America's Freddy Adu joined the seven-time French champions. Adu was not able to settle or impress while Park was. Now Monaco are so keen to keep hold of the Korean that they have extended his contract until 2013.

His first season by the Mediterranean was solid rather than spectacular. Five goals came in 31 games but the player’s team-mates welcomed his work-rate and link-up play within the team.

When he returned to his homeland for national team duty, Park was noticeably happier and more relaxed. For the first time for some time, he seemed to enjoy his football again.

You may not notice on the pitch and in front of the cameras, where the 24 year-old seems to take delight in speaking in monotonous tones and saying nothing, but behind the scenes, Park is popular, fun-loving and is obviously happy with the way things are going.

After his Monaco move, his form for the Taeguk Warriors started to improve and he started to grow into the famous red shirt. By the end of qualification for the 2010 World Cup, the question for coach Huh Jung-moo became who will play alongside Park in attack.

Such a platform led Park into his second season in Ligue One where he established himself as one of the league’s top strikers. Eight league goals so far, a handful of assists and his general all-round play mean that Monaco are fighting off interest from the really big leagues.

Park has made no secret of his desire to play for one of the big boys and the Korean media often debates as to which league would suit his talents.

"Up front is his best position," says Jean Petit, assistant of Monaco at the time Park was signed. "But he can still improve. He doesn't have enough of a killer instinct."

"Lots of clubs were interested. Ricardo and me had to really force the issue. It wasn't easy, or straightforward, but it turned out brilliantly. He knows what he wants," says Petit.

"He wants to play for a big club. So he lives healthily and gives everything for the team. And, true to the Asian mentality, he never gives up on anything."

As long as he is fit and in form, South Korea will not be giving up on dreams of a place in the last 16.