'Some footballers genetically predisposed to fail'
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Korean defender Kim Young-gwon, right, a moment after his blood betrayed him in the World Cup qualifier against Iran. / Yonhap
By Kim Tong-hyung
Here’s your midweek update on the stories in entertainment and media you might have missed while reading about how Dwight Howard managed to find a new home before Eric Snowden or because your life is undoubtedly a lot more fulfilling than ours.
Sorry, you’re not my (blood) type
Choi Kang-hee
The Korean national football team became a lifeless void under the watch of Choi Kang-hee, who spent his final games as manager counting the days like a detainee at Guantanamo Bay.
Now back with domestic club Jeonbuk Motors, Choi is showing more passion, launching verbal attacks at some allegedly spoiled players who were representing their country. (And conveniently forgetting to mention that he picked those players himself).
An enormous amount of ink and electrons have been spent on his silly feud with Swansea City midfielder Ki Sung-yueng, whose jabs at Choi on his private Facebook account were leaked and created a field day for reporters. But lost in all the attention given to ``Facebook Gate’’ are some amazing comments Choi made between his rants about the way he judges talent.
For him, it’s all about what’s in the veins. Botched a big play in an important match? The source of your ineptitude, Player X, is your blood type.
``People with type B blood are competitive and goal-oriented. On the other hand, people with type O blood are friendly but careless. They will often show lapses in concentration,’’ Choi told a Sports Dong-A reporter, explaining why he prefers type-B players as defenders.
The conversation naturally led to Korea’s 1-0 defeat to Iran in its final World Cup qualifier, which was also Choi’s last match as Korea manager. Iranian striker Reza Ghoochannejhad hit the game-winner after picking off un-alert Korean defender Kim Young-gwon near the box.
A classic type-O mistake, according to the imaginary encyclopedia downloaded in Choi’s head. Choi said he had a feeling beforehand that Kim might make this kind of a mistake.
``Before the match, I told Kim not to dribble near the Iranian attackers and be quick to clear the ball when the play wasn’t there,’’ Choi said.
``After the match, he was shocked. I shook his hand and told him everything was okay, but he won’t forget that play for a while.’’
The idea that blood type can define a person’s personality, temperament and ability is routinely dismissed as nonsense, but that hasn’t kept many Koreans from subscribing to the idea.
After Choi’s comments went online, Yun Suk-young, the Queens Park Rangers player who was another unhappy camper in ``Team Choi,’’ tweeted to remind everyone that some of Korea’s best defenders ever, including Lee Young-pyo, Kim Tae-young and Choi Jin-chul, were type-Os. Former Manchester United star Park Ji-sung was a type-O too. Yun was probably fist-pumping when he found this on Google.
Yun deleted the tweet hours later after Korea’s sensitive, type-A media scolded him for talking back to an old person.
Brain-dead media moments of past week
Ivy
The San Francisco plane crash hasn’t shown the quality of Korean journalism in the most positive of lights.
The biggest brain fart came from Channel A news presenter Yoon Kyung-min, who quipped on-air it was ``fortunate’’ that both of the passengers who died from the accident were Chinese, not Koreans. The broadcaster quickly apologized but not before all hell broke loose on social media sites.
The Korea Communications Standards Commission, the country’s broadcasting censor board, said it is considering Yoon’s comments, but hasn’t decided whether to discipline him.
Heo Jay-hyun, a reporter from the Hankyoreh newspaper, became the butt of social media jokes on his way to the San Francisco airport when he sprayed a slew of tweets asking if there was any bilingual person who can help him there. Things got desperate to the point where he was asking one American twitter user, ``hi. can u speak korean?”
Perhaps, the liberal newspaper, which had speechified about helping non-regular workers, wasn’t too crazy about spending on an interpreter.
The K-pop scene contributed to the stupidity as well. Ivy, whose skimpy stage wear and aggressive thrusts make up for her limited vocal talent, complained on Instagram that the extended news coverage on the jet crash was shortening a television music show that she was to appear on.
Singer’s family feud getting uglier
Jang Yoon-jeong, a singer who recently wedded KBS television news presenter Do Kyung-wan, is about to get entangled in a defamation lawsuit from her own mother.
According to a report by cable entertainment channel tvN, Yoon Heung-bok is planning to sue her daughter’s management agency for 700 million won for its involvement in spreading what she claims were false rumors about the family’s financial situation.
The relationship between Jang and Yoon deteriorated when the singer earlier this year appeared in a SBS talk show and claimed she was in financial difficulties because her family members mismanaged her assets. Yoon and her businessman son deny this and both sides have been competing to leak tidbits to reporters since.
Jang didn’t invite her mother and brother to her wedding in June.