Cha Du-ri, a Succeeded ‘World All Star’

‘Like father, like son.’

Cha Du-ri (22. Armenia Bielefeld, Germany) is playing as a midfielder of the World All-Star Football Team. The stage is the friendly match between the World All-Star and the Real Madrid, which will be held in Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid on the 18th (Korean local time) commemorating the centennial of the Spanish prestige football club the Real Madrid.

The Head Coach of the World All-Star Team, a former Brazilian National Team Head Coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, announced the final entry of 25 all-stars including Cha Du-ri on the 14th. Therefore, Cha Du-ri with his father Cha Bum-kun (48) became the host of the unique record of ‘father-son national team member,’ ‘father-son Bundesliga players,’ and ‘father-son World All-Star.’ His father Mr. Cha was selected as the ‘World`s Best 11’ by the West Germany Promoters` Association in 1980 and played the World All-Star Game that year.

After Mr. Cha, top class Korean players including Park Chang-sun, Kim Joo-sung, Hong Myung-bo, and Yoo Sang-chul played the World All-Star Games, and Cha Du-ri is the 8th Korean player.

Cha Du-ri, who is 1m83 and 75kg and can run 100m in 11 seconds, is the next generation hope of the Korean football. Experts are saying, “He is like Cha Bum-kun in his peak time.” The Head Coach Guus Hiddink, who led the Korean National Team during the Korea-Japan World Cup, said, “If I found Du-ri just few years earlier, I could have made him a world-class player.”

Originally, Song Jong-guk (23. Feyenoord, the Netherlands) was planned to play the World All-Star. However, due to Song Jong-guk`s left ankle injury during the Dutch pro-league, Cha Du-ri got the chance. The stars selected as midfielders along with Cha Du-ri are the world stars including Nakata (Japan) and Balak (Germany).

Cha Du-ri, who succeeded the honor, is pledging, “I will show my talent as the next generation star of the Korean football in this game.” “Although I started football because of my father, and I tried to become like my father, but the important fact is that my father and I are different.”

For Cha Du-ri, playing in this game is a great chance to overcome his father, who dominated the German Bundesliga. It is because the possibility of Cha Du-ri is infinite.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com