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By Donald Macintyre
Posted Monday, October 3, 2005; 21:00 HKT
Park Ji Sung's dream of becoming a soccer star always seemed outsized for a kid who was usually the scrawniest player on the school team in his hometown of Suwon, a gritty industrial city south of Seoul. What Park lacked in size, however, he made up for in pluck and determination. While other kids practiced dribbling, Park worked on his passing skills because he knew the coach valued team players. He dutifully downed smelly doses of boiled frog extract when his father told him it would make him grow. When he didn't come home after school, his worried parents would find him on the pitch, doing push-ups long after his teammates had gone home. Says his high school coach Lee Hak Jong: "He was the smallest on the team, but the fittest, and no one could match his work ethic and discipline. I don't recall him ever skipping or being late for practice." Even then, Park barely made it onto a college team, and had to start his pro career on a second-tier Japanese squad.
But 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. Koreans watching Park outmaneuvering bigger players during the Cup saw his performance as a metaphor for South Korea itself—a small country whose survival has depended on outsmarting bigger and often sharper-elbowed neighbors.
Park's signing with the storied English club Manchester United in July has cemented his status as a national icon. No matter that he has yet to score any goals and hasn't been given much time on the field. He's already proved he can cut it in Europe—after his World Cup success, Park signed with the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, for whom he did well in the European Champions League. Now he faces a new challenge in the ultra-competitive, physically grueling English Premier League. Park believes he'll work his way to the top again, even if he only gets five minutes on the field. "I know if I do well during those 5 minutes, the coach will give me 10 minutes or even 15," he says. "I'll take it slow and do my best." His fans don't doubt that he'll do whatever it takes, even if that means downing another dose of frog potion.
—With reporting by In Jae Hwang/Seoul
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