OSIMHEN SHADES IKPEBA OVER BICYCLE KICK COMMENTS

AHN JUNG HWAN: WHEN COUNTRY ALLEGIANCE COSTs YOU A JOB

Telling the 2002 FIFA World Cup stories, you will be telling no stories without talking about the underdogs who shocked the world and made it to the Semifinals, South Korea. Someone would say they were one of the hosts but Japan was the co-host and they could not go past the second round in spite of easier opponents. From the Coach Guus Hiddink, to goalkeeper Lee Woon Jae, Captain Hong Myung Bo, World Cup revelation Ji Sung Park and the whole South Korean team, none other became popular like the former Perugia star. Ahn was an attacking midfielder who also played as a supporting striker.

When Ahn was going to represent his country at the 2002 South Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup, he could not imagine that he would never play for Perugia again due to a goal he would score in the tournament. Ahn Jung Hwan joined Perugia on loan from Busan Daewoo Royals in his native South Korea in the 2000/2001 Season. He had always had racism to deal with from both team-mates and fans alike. Hwan later claimed in a 2013 interview that they would not pass the ball to him even if he had a better chance to score.

At the competition, Ahn’s South Korea was paired in the same group as Portugal which had the reigning world player of the year Luis Figo, the United States of America and Poland while Italy was in the same group as Croatia, Ecuador and Mexico. Naturally South Korea’s group was for Portugal for the take and any other team could qualify along with them. Eventually South Korea stunned the world by leading the group and got the favorites Portugal knocked out. Italy’s under par performance in a relatively average group saw them coming second and setting up a second round clash with Korea.

Ahn Jung Hwan was surely looking forward to the day. He would want to prove a point. Likewise his country would be banking on his experience and understanding of Italian Serie A. Italy were obviously the favourites to progress from the tie. In the 6th minute Ahn had the opportunity prove his doubters wrong and raise his own confidence in the game. The Ecuadorian referee awarded the Koreans a penalty and Ahn Jung Hwan stepped forward to take it. His hit on the ball was not good enough to beat Gigi Buffon in goal who punched the ball out for a corner kick. Not quite long after that the Italians justified their favourite tag with Christian Vieri's opener. From that moment the game became tensed. Rough tackles were flying around and it seemed the Italians were running away with the victory. Seol Ki Hyeon managed to equalize in the 89th minute to send the match to the extra time and safe Hwan the blushes of his penalty loss. It was possible for a feeling that his loss of the penalty has anything to do with his Italian connection. Some may think Buffon may have studied and known how he would play it while some others may think it was deliberate to court the Italian favour.


The extra time was going the way of the second half but almost every vital decision was going against the Italians. They had Tommasi's goal disallowed for offside and had Francesco Totti sent off for diving. It was two minutes to the end of extra time, both teams were already thinking about the shootout. At the 118th minutes from nowhere Ahn Jung Hwan nodded the South Koreans into the quarter finals and sent the bitter Italians packing. Immediately he scored, Ahn ran to the corner, started laughing and later began to cry.  The Italians did not take the loss lightly, they felt they were a victim of FIFA conspiracy to make sure one of the host Countries progress. South Korea eventually made it to the semifinal making it the best performance by an Asian team till today.

Of course the story did not end there. Ahn was planning to return to normal life in Italy after the mundial but alas, the unthinkable happened. Hwan was sacked by Perugia. In the sack statement, Perugia owner Luciano Gaucci said the following words

        "I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian football."
 

How on earth will scoring a golden goal destroy Italian football?  Such is the drama and the emotional attachment the FIFA World Cup has. Although Gaucci seemed to later regret his actions and planned to go ahead and sign Hwan on a permanent basis on a three year deal. Hwan also rejected the offer and never returned to play in Italy again. He said "I will no longer discuss my transfer to Perugia, who attacked my character instead of congratulating me for a goal in the World Cup."

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