Julio Cesar has fond memories of his time with Park Ji-Sung.
Cesar, Gianluca Zambrotta and Massimo Omo held a joint press conference for the ‘Legends All-star’ event at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the morning of the 11th. Maurice Pagniello, co-founder of Lashing City Group, was also present.
The three legends will participate in the upcoming Legends All-star game on October 21 in South Korea. Prior to their arrival, Ronaldinho, Fabio Cannavaro, and Marco Materazzi visited Korea. Cesar, Zambrotta, and Omo, who arrived on Tuesday, will perform soccer-related entertainment and soccer clinics in Korea. Before the press conference, they spent time with the Kyungshin Middle School soccer team.
Interestingly, all but Omo are related to Korean soccer legend Park Ji-Sung. Cesar has met Park as a teammate and Zambrotta as an adversary. Cesar first played with Park at Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in the 2012-13 season.
At the time, QPR was bringing in a lot of talented veterans who had played for big clubs, and Cesar and Park were iconic signings. Park beat out a number of newcomers to become QPR’s captain.
Unfortunately, QPR’s 2012-13 season wasn’t the happy ending everyone thought it would be, as the club’s sudden influx of players didn’t quite gel, and a string of bad luck, including injuries, led to relegation.
At least César turned his career around at QPR. At Inter Milan, César had been labeled as aging, even though he was still very good, but at QPR he proved to be a force to be reckoned with. Despite QPR conceding a lot of goals, César proved his class with a number of unbelievable saves, which earned him a move to Portuguese giants Benfica, despite QPR’s relegation to the English Championship (second division). 메이저사이트
Reflecting back on the decade, Cesar says: “When I watched Park Ji-Sung at QPR, I thought he was so good technically. His interpersonal skills were so good that he became captain. When I saw Park Ji-sung, I realized the power of Korean soccer, and when I saw Son Heung-min at Tottenham, I realized the power of Korean soccer. I’ve also played with the Korean national team. I feel the development of Korean soccer here. It was a very good time to have a good relationship with Park Ji-sung,” he said, sharing fond memories of Park.
The same was true for Zambrotta, who only met Park as an opponent. “I met Park in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) semifinals when he was in Barcelona,” Zambrotta said. I’ve played against him a lot around the world. He’s one of the strongest players in Asia. It’s amazing to have such a good player in Asia.”
The UCL semifinal Zambrotta is referring to is from the 2007-08 season. Manchester United and Barcelona met in the quarterfinals for a ticket to the UCL final. The match was also notable for the meeting of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who were beginning to be recognized as the next big stars. At the time, Park Ji-sung was a force on both sides of the ball in both quarterfinal games, helping his team to the final. Zambrotta left Barcelona for AC Milan, where he also met Park Ji-Sung as an adversary.