Every club and country has players who divide opinion. Yet when it comes to South Korea, Park Chu-young does not so much divide as cleave in two. The biggest lightsaber imaginable pushes the two camps to opposite ends of the galaxy. The striker with an IQ of 150-plus has become a genius for finding controversy more than finding the net.
The 29-year-old has never been out of the headlines but now is back on the national team, and the media have gone into overdrive. On Nov. 3, he was recalled by national team coach Uli Stielike. The German acknowledged there will be some controversy over his decision to summon the former Arsenal striker for upcoming friendlies against Jordan and Iran in preparation for January's Asian Cup. He doesn't know the half of it.
When Park burst onto the scene in 2005, the only debate at home was whether he was going to be great or legendary. It turned out he was just pretty good. After three seasons with FC Seoul, he didn't join Chelsea or Liverpool, as was once predicted, but AS Monaco in 2008. It was a good level for the striker, and he had a solid three seasons in France. He scored 12 goals in his final campaign, an impressive achievement for a team that was relegated.
Champions League was always the ambition, and that was offered by Lille in the summer of 2011. But then came the call from Arsene Wenger. There's no need to talk about what happened and what didn't at Arsenal. He joined the club in August 2011 and left in spring 2014. He went to London as, perhaps, Asia's top striker and hugely popular in Korea. Neither was true when he left.
The major incident of note, at least back home, was one that seriously damaged his status. Korean males must start their 21-month military service in their 20s. This limits time and options overseas for those who are already there and those who want to go. For Park, this seemed especially strong. Just when the attacker got the move of his dreams, he was faced with the prospect of heading back home not much more than 18 months later. Not long after he joined Arsenal, his lawyers took advantage of a little-known loophole and used his French residency to delay service by 10 years.
The reaction back home was fierce. Military service is an emotional subject. If millions of males have to interrupt their university studies or career to do their duty, spending nights on snow-drowned mountains in sight of the most heavily fortified border in the world, why should football players (at least they get to spend their time turning out for the army team) be any different? It cost Park a lot of goodwill.
If he had been banging them in for Arsenal, it would have been easier -- Korean fans and media are largely very proud of their European exports -- and there would have at least been something else to write about. But Park was not playing -- at all. It took him a year to get back in the relative good books and help the Olympic team win bronze in 2012 -- ironically, an achievement that granted him full exemption from the army.
It didn't kick-start the Korean's career. He was still not playing for his club and had lost his national team spot. It was only when Hong Myong-bo, the Olympic coach, took the senior reins in July 2013 that things looked up. A goal, and a good one, in Athens in March booked his World Cup spot, though the debate as to whether he should go raged on. Park was lucky (or not, as it turned out), as there weren't many other options and there was a coach with limited time in the job ready to trust players he knew from the Olympics. But given the almost total lack of football for Park, it was a gamble.
And it failed, miserably. Park's only achievement in Brazil was angering millions of netizens back home even more and diminishing his levels of core support. He was completely anonymous and was omitted for the third game, as the Taeguk Warriors limped out of the tournament. For the fiercest critics of coach Hong, Park's presence was held up as a prime example of the perceived culture of politics and relationships that were, the argument went, damaging Korean football. This time there was a wider audience ready to listen and agree, and few of his once mighty army of fans ready to answer back.
Park seemed to have passed the point of no return. It doesn't make things easier that he never talks to the media. His taciturn public image is at odds with his popularity among his peers and fairly relaxed, smiling private persona. He might have been without a club, and despite the World Cup, there would have been plenty of interest from the K-League. But none could afford him, and the player was not interested.
And then it came: A year's contract from Al Shabab of Saudi Arabia worth around $1.5 million. Coming off the bench for his debut, he scored a fine, last-minute winner at Al Hilal. And so, three substitute appearances were enough for a recall. Stielike was at pains to claim this did not mean a spot at the 2015 Asian Cup in January for the striker. But as these two games are the final friendlies before the squad is named, it is a last opportunity to take a look at the player for himself. Korea is not strong in the striking area to start with, and Kim Shin-wook and Le Dong-gook are injured.
Fortunately for the striker, games in Amman and Tehran will mean escape from the media scrums that would have been waiting in Seoul. At least he can focus on football. It still might not be enough, but for the moment, Park is back in the national team and still dividing opinions. It's time to start scoring goals.