Football collector eyes exhibition in North Korea

Football memorabilia collector Lee Jae-hyung shows various balls from his collection. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Bae Eun-joo

As one of the world’s most popular sports, football enjoys an extremely devoted fan base.

Lee Jae-hyung, general manager of monthly football magazine “Best Eleven,” deserves the title “Korea’s No. 1 football fan.”

Tightly packed with tens of thousands of collectibles, his three bedroom apartment barely has room for a bed. He calls this space “The Soccer History Institute.”

Boasting over 40,000 pieces of memorabilia, Lee’s vast collection ranges from simple items, such as football cards, magazines and football badges, to vintage football boots, World Cup songs on vinyl records and a Bundesliga club trophy. He has the largest collection in Korea.

From left, a photograph signed by North Korean football star Ri Chan-myung, a patch worn by Park Doo-ik and a pair of vintage leather boots worn by a North Korean football player from the 1966 FIFA World Cup. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul

The 52-year old said his passion for football probably comes from not having fulfilled his childhood aspiration. “If I had become a professional football player, I would never have become such an impassioned collector over the last 25 years.”

“I used to play on a football team in elementary school. I was gifted,” Lee recalled. “I had talent and will, but not enough family support. My father abruptly passed away when I was in third grade and we lived in dire straits. As I moved on to middle school, I had to give up my dream.”

Recently, Lee has been in talks to hold an exhibition in North Korea. “I showed some of my North Korean pieces to an acquaintance of mine who conveyed the news to a North Korean government official,” he said. “The North Korean government is extremely interested in my collection and I’m awaiting a response.”

He owns some 50 historical items in his North Korean football collection.

A football shirt signed by the South Korean national football team from the 1970s.

If realized, the collector elaborated he would be the first South Korean to stage an exhibition in Pyongyang, which could have exceptional significance as the two Koreas mark the 70th anniversary of National Liberation Day on Aug. 15. “This could serve as a great opportunity to bring South and North Koreans together,” Lee said.

In 1966, North Korea shocked the world by reaching the quarterfinals at the FIFA World Cup held in England, upsetting one of football’s most successful teams, Italy, 1-0.

Nicknamed “Chollima,” a mythical winged horse that cannot be mounted by a mortal man and a symbol of North Korea’s revolutionary spirit, the North Korean team caught the world so by surprise that a British film director Daniel Gordon shed light on the surviving members of the 1966 North Korean national football team in a documentary titled “The Game of Their Lives” in 2002. The North Korean team was the first Asian nation to progress beyond the first round at the World Cup finals.

A football signed by Portuguese legend Eusebio da Silva Ferreira

Lee revealed that he had purchased some 50 pieces from one of the biggest moments in World Cup history on his trip to London from an English football collector in 2006. They include football strips, vintage leather football boots, badges and pennants -- none of which exist in North Korea.

“North Korean football players exchanged almost all of their belongings for wrist watches, liquor and other gifts after their victory. They virtually have no record of their greatest football moment in their country. Isn’t it ironical that a South Korean owns its entire collection?” Lee said.

One notable item among his North Korean collection was a patch worn by Park Doo-ik, the 1966 World Cup hero who scored the winning goal against Italy at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough, at a dinner party.

At the time, North Korean players and staff had repeatedly requested the British government to be recognized as “DPRK (Democratic Republic of Korea),” but a patch labeled “N. Korea” was all they received. Feeling degraded and displeased with the name, Park left the patch with his signature to a British football club staff member as a souvenir.

In Lee’s possession is also a photograph featuring North Korean football players from the 1966 World Cup moment with the signature of then goalkeeper Ri Chan-myung. Lee obtained Ri’s signature on the framed photograph when South Korea hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2007. Ri led the North Korean youth football team to Suwon.

“Ri was very astounded to see this old photograph,” Lee said. “He verified that it was genuine and signed ‘national unification’ on it.”

Lee is discussing with the Seoul Metropolitan Government about building a football museum to house the nations’ largest collection of souvenirs.