3 Koreans Up for Young Player Award

Park Ju-young Nominated for Gillette Award-

Park Ju-young, Baek Ji-hun, and Kim Jin-gyu were nominated for the candidate of 2006 Gillette Best Young Player Award. The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) on May 19 selected 40 candidates from 24 nations who are under 21 years of age and participating in the upcoming World Cup in Germany. An online poll is to be conducted during the World Cup on FIFA’s website. The poll will serve as a criterion for selecting the winner. Lionel Messi of Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal are some of the other candidates for this award. The winner will be announced on July 7.

Pele Prophecy-

"The Emperor of Soccer,” Pele (65), known to make uncanny predictions of World Cup outcomes, said Brazil cannot be sure of its victory in the upcoming Germany World Cup. Through an interview with the Associate Press while he was in London for the launching of his autobiography, Pele said, “Every time a team has been the favorite to win the Cup, it has ended up losing badly,” and “Brazil is the best team today, but it quickly needs to forget the idea that it will easily win the Cup.”

Adidas Ball to be Used in Evaluation Matches-

The Korea Football Association announced yesterday that the official World Cup play ball by Adidas will be used instead of the Nike ball in the upcoming evaluation matches against Senegal and Bosnia Herzegovina. The decision was made in spite of the sponsorship contract the national team has with Nike, in an effort to familiarize the World Cup play ball with the players.

Jin-Kyun Kil bluesky@donga.com