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Asia's Online Heroes
Korea's 2002 World Cup Football Team
For their spirit and determination in 2002's World Cup, 37% of our voters nominated Korea's football team. Under Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, Korea's Red Devils went from a side with one of the worst records in international football to a gang of fleet-footed giant killers. Who cares if they didn't make it to the finals? By overrunning favorites Italy and Portugal, outlasting co-hosts Japan and taking a sporting nation's revenge on the U.S., the Korean football team was an inspiration to a nation—and a region—that sorely needed it. As Mike Pegg wrote, "The team, not just the coach or specific players, gave hope to Korean people not just in the country but to all Koreans living abroad."
Check out the chart below to see how the rest of the voting went:
Here's what TIME's readers said about some of the other nominees:
"Without him, Singapore wouldn't be the modern, prosperous and safe country that it is today."
—Tan June, nominating Singapore's founding father Lee Kwan Yew
"He's 7'5" and can play and smile at the same time."
— Johnny Wong, nominating Chinese NBA star Yao Ming
"He built the miracle of Malaysia from a small wooden shop to the tallest building in the world."
—Swee Kim Kim, nominating Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
"He is the only cricketer to take 400-plus wickets in both forms of the game... He is very straightforward and he has something in him that just attracts you."
—Khawaja Sherdil Waqar, nominating Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram
"She led the Philippines against a ruthless dictator and has restored democracy to the Filipino people."
—Josh Lim, nominating Philippines ex-President Corazon Aquino
"[His] Edhi Foundation is the largest and best-organized social welfare system in Pakistan and in the Third World."
—Ali Kamran, nominating Pakistan humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi
"[He has been] the epitome of entertainment, masculinity, class and style for close to 3 decades."
—Arun Nair, nominating Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan
"He struggles in his own life, uses words to express his mind, and creates masterpieces."
—Daniel Ho, nominating Chinese author and Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian
"For his tireless efforts in bringing the Bali bombing perpetrators to justice."
—Johannes Kuswanto , nominating top Bali investigator I Made Pastika
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