By Nam Hyun-woo
Over the past decade, there is no doubt that Park Ji-sung has earned his right to be revered as an icon of Korean football.
He has had a much-decorated and trailblazing career, but his career was less than promising in the beginning.
He started playing football when a student at Seryu Elementary School in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.
Although regarded as a talented player throughout his high school, no university showed interest in the small and flat-footed teenager.
Eventually, he was admitted to Myongji University, long regarded as an underdog in university tables.
But his fortunes changed in an unexpected way when his university team held a practice match against the Korean national team preparing for the Sydney Olympics.
Park’s versatile playing caught the eyes of then-coach, Huh Jung-moo, during the match, which provided the elite player with an opportunity to later join the national team.
After the Olympics, he made his professional debut with Japan's Kyoto Purple Sanga in 2001. After delivering a decent performance in the Japanese league, he was chosen to play in the national side for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
He gave an outstanding performance at the World Cup, which served as a stepping stone for him to move to a bigger league.
He scored the goal in Korea's 1-0 victory over Portugal which enabled the team to reach round 16 for the first time in the country's World Cup challenge history. In 2002, Korean national team reached to the semi-finals.
Following the success achieved at the 2002 games, he followed Guus Hiddink, who was the head coach of the Korean team at the World Cup, to join PSV Eindhoven in 2003.
In 2005, when he netted an opener for the Dutch club during its second leg match of UEFA Champions League semi-finals against AC Milan, many Europe-base clubs started to want him.
That year, he signed with Manchester United, becoming the first Korea player ever to play in English Premier League.
The dedicated and tireless midfielder picked up four league titles in his during his seven seasons at the United and marked his status as former United coach Sir Alex Ferguson's favored player.
In 2008, he became the first Asian winner of the UEFA Champions League. He missed the final against Chelsea that year, but the following year, he became the first Asian to play the title match, in which United lost to Barcelona.
Park underwent a major operation on his right knee in 2007. Though he returned to the team after eight months of recovery, but the injury haunted him for years afterwards.
After making 29 goals and 22 assists in 207 appearances, he left the club and moved to Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in the same league, beginning the 2012-2013 season as the captain.
Despite suffering injuries, he played for his second club in England, but QPR was relegated to second-tier the Football League Championship.
After the season he returned to PSV on loan and made 23 Eredivisie appearances in the past season.
Until he called an end to his international career in 2011, he played in 100 international matches and appeared in three straight World Cups.