World Cup Ball Coming Home at Last

It was June 22 2002 at Gwangju World Cup Stadium.

The ball Korea’s fifth kicker, Hong Myung-bo (current coach of Korea’s national football team), kicked dashed into the goal. It was when a legend was being created, defeating Spain after a shootout, making Korea enter the semifinal round.

The ball used at that moment when the whole nation was dancing with joy is to be permanently displayed in Korea after four years. This was made possible thanks to painful efforts of Lee Jae-hyung (45), a football collector.

It was Gamal Ghandour (48) the then referee from Egypt that kept the ball whose whereabouts were in doubt. Lee, who found out where it was, initiated a thorough plan a year ago to get it. At last on August 7 he was able to meet Ghandour in the new city of Rahab near Cairo.

But there was no guarantee that the ball would return to Korea. Ghandour was reluctant to offer the ball, which he thought of as “glory in his family.” Not only the then umpire but also Pierluigi Collina, known as “the Alien” and other referees wrote their autograph on it. And after the match, Ghandour was even threatened by the Spanish media and football fans. There were also misjudgment controversies and bribery scandals surrounding him.

Lee persuaded him, saying, “If you keep the ball, it would be a glory in your family, but if it is brought to Korea, it would be permanently preserved and remembered in the history of Korean football.” He also promised to him, “The ball display would definitely go along with recovering your prestige.”

Eventually Ghandour gave the ball to Lee.

The Korean Embassy in Egypt applauded the news. The Korean Ambassador to Egypt Choi Seung-hoh invited Ghandour and Lee to his residence in Cairo on August 9 for an “official conferment ceremony.”

Lee even took Ahn Jung-hwan’s “golden ball” from Byron Moreno, the referee at the Korea-Italy semi-quarter-final match in Ecuador in 2004. Planning to return to Korea on August 11, Lee is going to display the ball for all to watch after a ceremony with the 2002 Korean national soccer team members who used the ball, including Hwang Sun-hong, Ahn Jung-hwan, and Lee Woon-Jae.

Meanwhile Ghandour, for the first time, commented on the judgment controversy. The ball went in after a neck-and-neck play between Ivan Helguera from Spain and Kim Tae-young, but it was judged a foul. Here he said, “I clearly saw how Helguera pressed the neck of the mask man (Kim Tae-young), and immediately blew the whistle. It was a clear foul where the whistle blew before the ball went in.”

Ghandour said, “As Korea was so silent about it, even Egyptian and Spanish fans doubted my decision,” adding, “I still feel uncomfortable toward Korea which disappointed me so much.”

jaeyuna@donga.com