In football matches, there are special celebrations used to express joy after scoring a goal, and one particularly well-known celebration is Park Ji-sung’s “Walking Celebration” that left a strong impression and is still remembered to this day from the 2010 national team match.
“Park Ji-sung’s ‘Walking Celebration’ in 2010”
Among Park Ji-sung’s celebrations, one of the most well-known is the “Walking Celebration,” which occurred during a friendly match against Japan ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
During this match, the national team played a friendly against Japan at the Saitama Stadium in Japan. Park Ji-sung executed a solo run, scored a long-distance shot, and then, while looking at the Japanese spectators, performed a slow walk celebration.
“The match ended with a 2-0 victory with Park. Joo-young’s additional goal.”
Following Park Ji-sung’s opening goal, Park Joo-young scored another goal, resulting in a final score of 2-0 victory.
“A Celebration that Dampened Japan’s National. Team’s Send-off Ceremony”
The match was organized as part of Japan’s national team’s send-off ceremony before the World Cup. Despite being an important match from Japan’s perspective, Park Ji-sung scored a goal that disrupted the atmosphere and performed the walking celebration.
In a later interview, Park Ji-sung revealed that upon hearing Japanese fans booing when his name was announced in the starting lineup, he felt angry and deliberately scored a goal and performed an arrogant celebration as payback.
Additionally, after Park Ji-sung’s walking celebration, it became a sort of unspoken rule or meme that whenever a Korean team scores at the Saitama Stadium, they must replicate Park Ji-sung’s walking celebration.
In fact, during a 2013 AFC Champions League match against Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan, Lee Dong-gook of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors replicated Park Ji-sung’s walking celebration by staring at the Urawa fans in the same manner after scoring a winning goal as a substitute in the second half.
Jeonbuk went on to win the match 3-1 with an additional goal by Eninho following Lee Dong-gook’s comeback goal.