By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
To Chelsea, Barcelona and LA Galaxy it was a visit for a friendly game, and to Manchester United it was part of its Asian tour. Now, AS Monaco of France is rumored to be set to come to South Korea for a couple of exhibition games as part of its marketing scheme.
Monaco, where Korean international Park Chu-young is playing, is planning a tour here in July, right before the final match of the 2010 South Africa World Cup, FC Seoul said Thursday.
``We have recently received an offer from a local agency who signed with Monaco, and are currently reviewing it,'' FC Seoul Vice President Han Oung-soo told The Korea Times.
If the plan is finalized, the French club will play friendlies with FC Seoul and one provincial-based K-League club between July 8 and 11. The World Cup final is scheduled for July 12.
To realize the plan, however, there should be a guarantee that the club will benefit from the project, FC Seoul said. As one of the most popular sides in the K-League, it has attracted an average attendance of over 40,000 for its five home games in Seoul this season.
``Considering the French club is not a big name here, apart for Park, we are still not too sure how popular the game would be here,'' Han said.
The final decision will be made within a week, he added.
Park would play with Monaco on the trip. Before joining the club last year, the 25-year-old striker was a star at FC Seoul, where he played for four seasons from 2005 to 2008 and scored 23 goals in total.
This season he has scored nine goals for Monaco, with eight of them coming in French League matches, but had to sit out the end of the season due to a hamstring injury. Park is currently training at the National Football Center in Paju, Gyeonggi Province with other preliminary World Cup squad members.
Monaco currently stands at eighth in the Ligue 1 standings, missing out on a Champions League berth.
Monaco may not be this year's only European visitor. Real Madrid is supposed to visit in August as part of the major club's Asian tour.
A couple more Spanish teams are purportedly in talks over a Korean trip. Barcelona, which first came here in 2004 for a friendly with Suwon BlueWings, are mulling over a second visit in August.
FC Seoul, however, said it has not received an official offer from Barcelona yet.
Europa League winner Atletico Madrid, which has Korean carmaker Kia as its main sponsor, is also considering tapping into the Korean market. Kia Motors, however, said its Korean unit isn't actually involved in the plan.