Park: I’m bigger than Rooney

IF you were guessing who gets the most fan mail at Manchester United, Ji-Sung Park would probably be some way off the top of your list.

Surely Wayne Rooney must outstrip him, along with Rio Ferdinand and Javier Hernandez.

Don't you believe it!

While they might get sackloads, it arrives by the ton for Park.

There is more than for anyone else at Old Trafford - and not just letters.

Park revealed: "I get a lot of parcels coming over from South Korea. They send me everything from clothes to food and sweets.

"I have even been sent money before. The notes in South Korea changed and they sent me the new ones so I could see them because I'm living here.

"Maybe they're worried I'll forget about home!"

Idolised in Asia, but most notably in his native South Korea, the midfield dynamo cannot walk down a street back there without literally being mobbed.

The girls scream as if he is a pop star.

United are massive in Asia and to have one of their own playing for the Red Devils has made Park his country's biggest sports star.

When, in the summer of 2009, United played a friendly in the capital, Seoul, the noise was deafening in a packed World Cup stadium merely for Park warming up.

In the Gillette advert with Roger Federer and Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry was replaced by Park for South Korean audiences.

Park, 30, added: "It's difficult to deal with, being stopped in the street and so on. It's a different culture.

"Asian culture is that people are quite excited about the players.

"But most of the time I'm in England and it's only during holidays that I'm at home.

"Sometimes it's great, because the fans love me. You get energy from that. But it is easier to walk around Manchester.

"I actually don't like being a famous person. I just want to be a normal person.

"But I play for Manchester United, so I get that attention. There aren't many Asian players in Europe or the Premier League, so that's more attention for me.

"That's why a lot of people support me in other countries.

"When I'm back in my country, it's like being David Beckham. But it's like that for David Beckham all over the world. It must be more difficult for him than for me."

The intense focus on him has not put Park off one day returning home to South Korea to live.

He said: "I have been away from my country for 11 or 12 years and I will definitely go back and live there. I miss it a lot, even though I am famous. But when I finish my career, my fame will have decreased so it will be more relaxed at home."

Millions will tune in across Asia to support Park and United on Saturday, when they face Barcelona in the Champions League final.

And he will be hoping it is third time lucky after a double dose of heartbreak in the tournament.

On the morning of the 2008 final against Chelsea in Moscow, he was taken to one side by manager Alex Ferguson and told he would not be in the squad.

The following year in Rome, he was in the team that faced Barcelona but missed an early chance, which he admits could have changed the whole course of the game, and United went on to lose 2-0. He now believes that selection blow in 2008 could have been the making of him.

Park said: "It was very disappointing for me. I played in the semi-final and missed the final. I wasn't even in the squad.

"It was a very hard time but it was the manager's decision and he was looking to take care of the team and trying to win the game.

"I knew that if I wanted to play in a final, I'd have to improve.

"If I had been capable of playing in the final, he would have put me in the squad. It meant that I had to improve."

Improve he has - into one of United's real big-game players.

His incredible energy astounds even his own team-mates.

He covers every blade of grass, destroying what the opposition try to create, setting United going and sometimes scoring himself.

Yet how he wishes he could have converted that early chance as United tore into Barcelona from the first whistle in 2009.

Only a last-gasp Gerard Pique tackle denied him.

Park admitted: "In the first 10 minutes, we played very well. I had a good chance but Pique stopped that.

"If that chance had gone in, maybe it would have been a different result. But it didn't - and it wasn't.

"We conceded a goal, the game changed and we lost a bit of concentration. It's difficult to come back from that.

"It is difficult to know which was worse for me, 2008 or 2009.

"But now I have another chance to play in a final and win. That would be perfect for me. I'm looking forward to that.

"If I play and win, it would be the best moment in my career."

Park came to the fore originally as part of the incredible South Korea team that reached the 2002 World Cup semi-finals on home soil.

In 2010, he became the first Asian player to score in three successive World Cups but this season he decided he should retire from international football.

He said: "It was the right time to retire. Our national team has some young players who need a chance to play.

"If I played a lot, they wouldn't have the chance and they need to improve. The next World Cup is in 2014 and they have time.

"So for me and the team, it's the right decision."

When Park joined United in 2005 in a £4million deal from PSV Eindhoven, some cynically saw him as a marketing tool to sell shirts in Asia.

Undoubtedly he does sell shirts but only because he is one of the key figures in the current United team - one whose boundless energy will cause Barcelona no end of problems on Saturday.

He stated: "Even when I was young, that was my playing style.

"I try to help the team to win and my role is to run a lot and bring energy to the side. It's my job, so I have to do it."

And he does it very well.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3600706/Ji-Sung-Park-insists-he-is-bigger-than-Wayne-Rooney-at-Manchester-United.html#ixzz1NQo9MC3P