Perugia sack Korean hero

By James Whelan

SOUTH KOREA hero Ahn Jung-Hwan, who scored the golden goal to knock Italy out of the World Cup, has been axed by his Italian club Perugia, according to the team’s president.

Luciano Gaucci, said last night that he would not be renewing Ahn’s contract.

The 26-year-old Ahn was the golden boy of the K League during his two-year stint with Busan Icons and he hit the headlines when he became the first Korean to play in Italy’s Serie A with Perugia.

Ahn earned an extension on his loan period to the Italian club with a run of goals at the end of 2000/01 season but he was not a regular in the side last season.

“I am not extending his contract, he does not merit it,” Gaucci said. “When he arrived, he was like a little lost goat who didn’t even have the money to buy a sandwich. He became rich without doing anything exceptional and then, at the World Cup, he denigrated Italian football.

“I would have to pay three bn lire ( €1.66m) to extend his contract. But I won’t.

“Ahn will never play for Perugia again. What do you think I would do? That I would keep a player who ruined Italian football. He should have shown his talent while he was with us. He’ll just have to go back to Korea and earn 100,000 lire (about 48 dollars) a month.”

Ahn, Korean football’s pin-up boy, went into the Italy game on Tuesday still needing to prove himself to coach Guus Hiddink who before the World Cup ridiculed the Perugia player for not being fit to play a full match.

He left the Daejeon stadium a contented man after heading in the most important goal in the history of South Korean football to complete the 2-1 victory.

He and his team-mates were back on the training field yesterday, over the euphoria as they plotted the downfall of the next nation in their sights, Spain, while Japan came to terms with the end of their World Cup dream.

Midfielder Kim Nam-Il and defender Kim Tae-Young are both doubts for Korea’s last eight showdown with Spain on Saturday in Gwangju. Kim Nami-Il sprained his left foot while landing from a jump during the match in Daejeon and is to undergo intensive therapy in an effort to be ready.

Kim Tae-young broke his nose in the first-half against Italy and had surgery to have it set yesterday morning. He may wear a protective mask if he plays, Yonhap said.

The team will move on Friday to the venue which is expected to be swamped by South Korean fans.

In Italy, the nation’s newspapers cranked up criticism of Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno, who bore the brunt of the blame for their team’s exit. Gazzeta dello Sport trumpeted: “Italy feels cheated” as the beaten squad prepared to fly home. The dismissal of golden boy Francesco Totti, who was controversially penalised for diving, drew particular attention.

In a 13-page lament La Republicca called Moreno “the card-wielding executioner”.

A spokesman for FIFA said that the behaviour of the Italian squad after their defeat by South Korea in a second-round match on Tuesday was not acceptable.

Keith Cooper defended the standard of refereeing and went on to fire a broadside at the Italians. “I do know that co-operation with the Italian team after last night’s match was extremely difficult,” Cooper said.

“The disappointment of elimination is always huge. Some nationalities, some cultures can bear that more easily than others.

“We regard the professional as having a sense of obligation to the media to enable you to work. We try to stress to the players they are not actually talking to you they are talking to your readers, listeners and viewers.

“By refusing to talk to the media they are refusing to talk to the fans which is very regrettable.”

Italian cards withdrawn

SOME two million collectable adhesive cards featuring Italy’s World Cup squad have been withdrawn from sale in protest at the nature of Tuesday’s shock 2-1 defeat to South Korea.

“We were left indignant after the South Korea game which went against the image of clean football we have promoted for so long”, Umberto Leone, a director of publishers Panini, said yesterday.

“Clients have called to say that they back the decision fully.”