Never Stop Taking on the Next Challenge, by Park Ji-sung

South Korea had never won a men’s World Cup match before co-hosting the 2002 tournament with Japan. Under Guus Hiddink, it won twice and drew once in the group stage, enough to go through to the last sixteen.

South Korea came from behind to beat Italy in extra time, then got past Spain on penalties. Germany ended the run in the semifinal, a stage of the tournament most of us had never imagined reaching.

Hosting the tournament would have been an event in itself. Winning made it feel as though the whole country was watching the same story unfold.

A country in the streets for football

In 2002, going outside to watch the national team felt almost as natural as turning on the television. Crowds gathered in cities around the country.

Those gatherings are part of what comes back to me when I think about the World Cup.

Park Ji-sung’s goal against Portugal

South Korea came into its last group match with a win and a draw. With the score still 0–0, Park brought down a cross and scored the only goal. It was the moment many people outside Korea learned his name.

He went on to join Hiddink at PSV Eindhoven. The first part of his time there was difficult enough for home supporters to boo him. By 2005 he had earned a move to Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Park Ji-sung’s 2006 memoir

The book appeared a year after Park moved to Manchester United, at a point when his career had already taken him further than many people expected.

He writes about trying to become a professional player and what it took to work his way from his first club to one of the best-known clubs in the world.

The footballer with flat feet

Park was slight by the standards of many professional players. His flat feet became part of how his story was told in South Korea, and photographs of his feet circulated online.

He struggled to find a place to continue playing after high school. As the story is told in the book, an opening appeared at Myongji University when another player went elsewhere.

The route into the K League did not open up. Park went to Kyoto Purple Sanga in Japan and later helped the club earn promotion from the second division.

Hiddink selected him for the World Cup, and his performances helped open the way to the Netherlands.

When the home crowd booed

Park initially struggled at PSV. The book describes how he found room to regain his confidence away from home before winning over supporters who had once jeered him.

His performance against AC Milan in the 2004–05 Champions League semifinal helped bring him to a wider audience. The book closes with his move to Manchester United.

Finding a place at United

The memoir ends near the start of the United years. Park went on to earn a regular place in Ferguson’s plans, sometimes starting and sometimes coming off the bench.

His teammates included Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra, Paul Scholes, and Ryan Giggs.

Park became the first South Korean to play in the Premier League. What mattered after the first appearance was how often a strong team had a reason to use him.

South Korean players who followed

Park’s career gave Korean fans a way to imagine others playing in England. Some call him the father of overseas football, a nickname for the place he holds in their memories of the sport.

By the time I revisited the book in 2024, Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan were making their own marks in the Premier League. Son had shared the Golden Boot in 2021–22.

Application, energy, and resolve

Those are three qualities I associate with Park. In the book, they show up in the unglamorous work of earning another chance.

It can be hard to see a way forward while things are going badly. I thought about what it must have taken for Park to keep playing through those first months at Eindhoven.

Humility belongs in the same account. Reaching a place in a team and continuing to learn once there are different parts of the work.

A letter from Guus Hiddink

The book also includes a letter Hiddink wrote to Park in English.

• Dear Ji Sung
• When I first met Ji Sung I saw a young boy who had a lot of possibilities to become a better player, but he wasn’t really aware of his own qualities.
• On the way to the World Cup, during the preparation period, he was grown up a lot and became more and more confident.
• Then he arrived in Eindhoven to join us at PSV. In the beginning he had a difficult time because of the completely new experience in every respect; the country, language, culture and the way of training, but it was also difficult because he had been playing non stop for more than 3 years.
• He had suffered a small injury in his meniscus, but he didn’t mention anything to the technical or medical staff. That’s also typically Ji Sung.
• No complaining but only hard work and just keep on going. After that time, and after getting several criticisms from outside and inside the club, he became one of the most special and loved players at the club, in the team but also for  all the supporters of PSV and the city of Eindhoven.
• He left the club as a great player taking with him all the credits for his performance and devotion from PSV, his friends and the fans of the club.
• I expect Ji Sung to do with his best without any complain as usual.
• With best regards,
• From Guus Hiddink

The return to PSV at the end of his playing career

Park left United for Queens Park Rangers in 2012. The club was relegated after his first season there.

He returned to PSV on loan and finished his playing career with the club that had helped him get established in Europe.

His career as a player came to a close, but he kept working in football, including as a commentator. Reading the book now is a way of remembering what his career looked like before its outcome was known.

Book details

Never Stop Taking on the Next Challenge

Author

Park Ji-sung

Published

March 8, 2006

ISBN13

9788959865291

View the book on YES24

We may earn a commission if you buy through an affiliate link in this article.