Search: 'Park Ji-sung'

Dong Fangzhuo became an Asian sensation when he joined Manchester United from Chinese side Dalian Shide in 2004. Jonathan Fadugba explores the striker’s drastic decline from Europe’s top stage

Just days after wrestling the title away from defending champions Chelsea, Manchester United travelled to Stamford Bridge for a League fixture on May 9, 2007. All the pre-match talk was of a guard of honour. Would José Mourinho be magnanimous enough in defeat to indulge the newly crowned Champions? He was – but Alex Ferguson sent out a reserve team. What followed was an almost farcical scene as John Terry and co lined up to salute the likes of Chris Eagles, Kieran Richardson and Kieran Lee.

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The Asian Cup in Qatar highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of football in the region. John Duerden was there

You had to feel a bit sorry for Qatar. Despite having over a decade to prepare for the 2022 World Cup after the events of December 2 in Zürich, the tiny nation in fact had just five weeks before it was put on the spot. On January 7, the 2011 Asian Cup kicked off in Doha giving an international media, one that needed no second invitation to demonstrate the extent of FIFA’s madness, the chance to scrutinise Qatar’s hosting capabilities/football culture/traffic and pretty much everything else.

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'Iranian footballers banned for political protest' ran the headlines. James Montague investigates what really happened

It was the image that encapsulated a nation’s struggle for freedom: 11 stern-faced Iranian footballers, some wearing prominent green armbands, huddled together on a foreign pitch while their homeland burned, moments before a crucial World Cup qualifier. Tehran had been in the grip of street protests following the country’s heated presidential elections, won by the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but contested by the reformist-leaning Mir Mohammad Mousavi. With the regime wildly thrashing about to restore order, the players appeared to be expressing their feelings about the crisis moments before they took on South Korea.

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Simon Cotterill examines the legacy of half-filled stadiums from the 2002 World Cup

There was dismay in Japan and South Korea when FIFA announced in 1996 that the 2002 World Cup would be shared between them. The countries’ relationship was frosty at best and the bidding war between them had been fierce, bitter and expensive. Although shocked at FIFA’s unprecedented decision, both were at least relieved that they hadn’t actually lost the vote, and so set about trying to out-do each other by pumping billions into football facilities.

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Friday June 9
Possibly because Barry Davies, the last man who could take these things seriously, is missing, the BBC only show highlights of the opening ceremony. It includes lots of men in lederhosen, some ringing large cowbells attached to the waistbands of their shorts in a vigorous and vaguely pornographic manner. There’s a parade of former World Cup-winning stars, including what Jonathan Pearce describes as “The legend that is Italy”. “Ricky Villa – still tall,” gurgles Pearce later. Pelé arrives with the trophy, but brandishes it like he’s just won it, followed by Claudia Schiffer with Sepp Blatter in tow, sporting luxuriant sideburns that give him the look of Ben Cartwright from Bonanza.

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