"Park, Park, Wherever..."

By PremStar
March 26 2009

Park Ji Sung appears to have won a special place in the heart of Manchester United fans. Whilst Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo will always be loved for their attacking play and habit of scoring important goals at exactly the right time, the competition for the fans affections’ after those two is fierce.

Dimitar Berbatov doesn't show enough passion or effort, whilst Carrick, Ferdinand and Neville are consistently good but don't seem to win the acclaim.  Everyone is waiting for the occasionally dodgy Edwin van der Sar to hang up his goalie gloves, and pass them on to Foster.  Louis Saha never even had a chant. 

The Da Silva twins and Anderson are heroes in the making, whilst Evra and Vidic have made their mark, and earned cult-hero status, but aren't named by many as their favourite player. 

It seems that Park Ji Sung is emerging as one of the fans' favourites - ahead even of Carlos Tevez - because of his non-stop energy and his never-say-die attitude.  This is proven by the fact that he has just finished top of the pile in the ‘Fans Player of the Week' at http://www.contacttheplayers.com/ - meaning that more fans have chosen to write a message to him than to any other Premiership footballer!  What makes it all the more impressive is that fans aren't guaranteed a response from Park, where they are from over 50 players, including out-of-sorts Michael Owen.

The website says that much of Park's support is from "the Far East - in Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia especially" but he is well supported over in the UK, and regularly has his name chanted by the Old Trafford faithful.  His dignity in being looked over for the European Champions League Final also appears to have won him favour with the fans. 

The website concluded that Park "is by far the most popular player on the website - playing for Manchester United obviously helps, but it is the hard work and effort that Park puts in at every game that has made him a favourite of the fans."  He is fast becoming a fixture in the United side, and seems as popular with Sir Alex Ferguson and his team-mates as he is with the fans.