South Korea’s Park Ji-sung left Premier League giants Manchester United for top-flight minnows Queens Park Rangers on Monday in a bid to get more first-team action.
The industrious 31-year-old midfielder spent seven years at Old Trafford after arriving from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, scoring 27 goals in 203 appearances for United.
Park — capped more than 100 times and the only Asian to score in three successive World Cup finals tournaments (2002, 2006 and 2010) — helped United win four Premier League titles, three League Cups and the 2008 Champions League, but he could not quite nail down a first-choice spot in the Red Devils’ midfield.
Photo: Reuters
“It was a very difficult decision, it’s hard to leave such a big club, but QPR showed me what they are trying to be,” he said. “It is time for a new challenge.”
Park, who signed for an undisclosed fee believed to be more than ￡2 million (US$3.1 million), reportedly received offers from leading clubs in England, Europe and Asia.
However, he decided to join a QPR side owned by ambitious Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes and managed by former United striker Mark Hughes.
“QPR want to be a bigger club, they want to improve and it’s a great challenge,” Park said. “It was a difficult decision, but they have great players and they are hungry to get to the next level. It’s not about the money. The manager, Mark Hughes, has a proven track record at Premier League level, and I am looking forward to working with him and the rest of the squad to help take the club to the next level.”
Park is Rangers’ sixth pre-season signing, joining Ryan Nelsen, Andrew Johnson, Robert Green, Samba Diakite and his former United teammate Fabio at Loftus Road.
“On a football level, Ji is someone I have admired from afar for years,” Hughes said. “He wore the red shirt of Manchester United in a distinguished way and he will bring a great deal to the team, I can’t wait to start working with him. Ji is a motivated guy, he feels there is success ahead of him, he ticks every box. It’s a very exciting time for QPR.”
“He’s very adept in a number of positions. What he brings to the team is technical ability, a huge work ethic and a winning mentality,” Hughes said. “He understands what it takes to win trophies and to win matches, and I want to take that from Ji and pass it to the rest of the team. I said at the end of the season we didn’t want to be in the same position next season and I stand by that, we are in a better place now.”
Meanwhile, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was sorry to see Park go.
“He is the ultimate professional and such a nice lad,” Ferguson said. “He never let us down on the big occasions. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t give him the number of games he wanted.”
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS