Sunday, March 26, 2006

Readying for the World Cup / 월드컵 준비하기

Surname Dearth Brings New Clothes for Taeguk Warriors [slightly edited]

The relative scarcity of surnames in Korea will lead to a change in the way national football squad will be identified on their jerseys. Thus the Manchester United striker currently sporting a shirt that reads J S PARK will instead be identified as JISUNG.

"There are many players in the country with the same last name, and distinguishing among them can be difficult," the Korean Football Association said Tuesday. The current system "also makes it difficult to increase the international recognition of the players' names, so we've decided to change it." In the case of the team that played Angola on March 1, the names Kim and Lee accounted for 12 out of 23 players. Three players - Kim Do-hun, Kim Doo-hyun and Kim Dong-hyun - are all identified as D H KIM.

The new jerseys will first be donned in friendlies at the end of May and later be seen at the World Cup in Germany.

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