Park Ji-sung to work as TV commentator during 2018 FIFA World Cup

This file photo taken Dec. 8, 2017, shows former South Korean footballer Park Ji-sung at an event in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, May 9 (Yonhap) — South Korean football icon Park Ji-sung will work as a commentator during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a local broadcaster said Wednesday.

SBS said the former Manchester United midfielder will comment on matches in its World Cup broadcasts. South Korea are in Group F at the World Cup in Russia with Germany, Mexico and Sweden.

Park, who hung up his boots in 2014, currently heads the Korea Football Association’s youth football strategy department. The KFA said Park is allowed to have another job as long as it doesn’t interfere with his current work.

“I’ve been receiving offers for football commentating for a long time, and as an administrator, I’ve been thinking of ways to help South Korean football,” Park said through SBS. “I decided to accept the offer with expectations that experiencing football in various ways would expand my views.”

Park will join other members of the 2002 South Korean national team in the booth for World Cup matches. Former Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund left back Lee Young-pyo has been working with KBS, while former Perugia forward Ahn Jung-hwan has been analyzing matches for MBC.

Park is considered one of the best footballers South Korea has ever produced. He represented the country at three FIFA World Cups, scoring at least a goal in each of the three tournaments. He won 100 caps for South Korea, one of nine South Koreans in the century club.

Park, who also had stints with PSV Eindhoven and Queens Park Rangers, is also the first South Korean to play in the English Premier League (EPL).

SBS said Park will have a press conference next Wednesday to talk about his new World Cup gig.