Park Chu-young, the only Korean ever to play for Arsenal, announces retirement

One-time Arsenal forward Park Chu-young announced his retirement last week, ending a nearly two-decade career that saw him bounce around Europe, briefly dabble with the Premier League and return to build a solid career in Korea.

Arsenal's Park Chu-young celebrates scoring during a League Cup match against Bolton Wanderers at Emirates Stadium in London on Oct. 25, 2011. [AP/YONHAP]

One-time Arsenal forward Park Chu-young announced his retirement last week, ending a nearly two-decade career that saw him bounce around Europe, briefly dabble with the Premier League and return to build a solid career in Korea.

The Ulsan HD player-coach, 39, will hand up his boots with over 190 K League appearances, 68 senior caps, an Olympic bronze medal and a transfer-rich career that made headlines, even if they were not always for the best reasons.

From starting his career at FC Seoul, playing for Arsenal in the Premier League and then joining Ulsan for the final phase of his career, who is Park and how did he end up here?

FC Seoul

Park's story is unusual prety much from the go. While most Korean players start their careers in Korea's youth leagues and a select few head to Europe, Park spent a big part of his youth career in Brazil, honing his skills as part of an academy program backed by the Pohang Steelers.

FC Seoul forward Park Chu-young celebrates during the K League match against Busan IPark at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on May 5, 2006. [JOONGANG ILBO]

But he didn't start his career in Brazil or with the Steelers, instead he turned pro with FC Seoul, in 2005, scoring his first goal for the team in just his second match. He racked up the goals that first season, and it wasn't long before people started to see him as a potential European prospect.

Park's first season ended with 18 goals and six assists across 32 fixtures. The 2006 season saw a decline in goal production, with 10 goals across 32 matches, but he still secured the now-disbanded Korean League Cup victory.

The 2007 campaign was an injury-plagued season for Park, with only five goals in 15 matches. He then ended the first half of the 2008 season with two goals and four assists across 17 games, but the performance he had demonstrated landed him on AS Monaco’s radar, eventually joining the Ligue 1 side in August 2008.

Starting in Europe

Park saw a strong start to the 2008-09 Ligue 1 season with a debut goal and assist in his first appearance for Monaco against FC Lorient on Sept. 13, 2008.

Continuing to play as a regular forward pick through the end of the season, he ended his first campaign in Europe with five goals and seven assists in 35 matches across all competitions.

The 2009-10 season also went smoothly for him, picking up nine goals and six assists in 33 matches.

He also made it onto the final roster for the 2010 World Cup, where he scored a crucial free-kick goal to send Korea through to the round of 16.

Korea's Park Chu-young, second from right, celebrates scoring against Nigeria during the 2010 World Cup match in South Africa on June 22, 2010. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Park’s solid performance carried over to the following season during which he racked up 12 goals and one assist across 35 games.

But despite his efforts, Monaco finished in 18th-place on the 20-team table and faced relegation, prompting Park to consider moving to a different club.

And that is when Park’s career in Europe started to take a turn for the worse.

Joining Arsenal

Park famously ended up signing with Arsenal ahead of the 2011-12 Premier League season. At that time his name was spelled Park Ju-young, and he played in a "J Y Park" shirt.

According to rumors at the time, Park had been undergoing a medical for Lille when he received the Arsenal call. He jumped at the chance to join the Premier League club, the first and still only Korean player ever to appear for the team. But his career there tapered off so quickly that Daily Telegraph reporter John Duerden referred to the call Park received during his Lille medical as "the worst call to answer since Colin Farrell picked up a New York public phone in Phone Booth and endured a few hours of misery."

Park failed to establish himself as a key player under then-manager Arsene Wenger, who mostly used Robin van Persie.

Park was mostly on the bench or sometimes not even in the squad during the campaign. He did score one goal in the League Cup match against Bolton in October 2011, but that was the only goal contribution he made in just six appearances that season.

Arsenal's Park Chu-young celebrates scoring during a League Cup match against Bolton Wanderers at Emirates Stadium in London on Oct. 25, 2011. [AFP/YONHAP]

Despite baarely featuring for Arsenal, Park was still a wildcard pick for Korean U-23 national team at 2012 London Olympics, winning Korea’s first Olympic bronze medal — remaining as the country’s best finish in men’s football — and scoring during the bronze medal match against age-old rivals Japan.

The bronze medal also came with a military exemption, allowing him to pursue his career uninterrupted.

Loan spell at Celta Vigo But with Arsenal no longer showing any interest, demand for Park had dropped off. Wegner did not utilize the Korean forward in the 2012-13 season, deploying Lukas Podolski instead.

Park ended up joining La Liga club Celta Vigo on the last day of the transfer window on a one-year loan to see more playing time, but he saw more downs than ups toward the end of that season.

Celta Viga forward Park Chu-young celebates during the La Liga match against Getafe in Spain on Sept. 23, 2012. [YONHAP]

He scored just two goals in the first half of the campaign, gradually seeing a decline in his playing time and disappeared from the roster from April. By the end of the season, he had only registered four goals and one assist in 25 matches and was shipped back to London.

No room at Arsenal

Park returned to Arsenal for the 2013-14 season, but he had no place in the team. He failed to appear in almost any game, playing just nine minutes against Chelsea in the League Cup in October 2013.

He was sent on loan to Championship side Watford for the second half of the season, but only made two appearances and then returned to Arsenal.

Upon his return, his contract with Arsenal ended. Despite the lack of playing time, he was called up for the 2014 World Cup where Korea failed to reach the round of 16.

Following the poor World Cup run, Park left Europe to join Saudi Arabian team Al-Shabab in October 2014. But his four-month spell with the team only saw him score one goal in seven matches.

That one goal was to be the last goal he scores outside the K League.

Back to basics With very little to show for his years overseas, Park called it a day and returned to FC Seoul in March 2015, where he first rose to prominence.

He regained his old form in the K League, adapting to the squad and recording nine goals and two assists across 24 matches to end the 2015 season with the Korean FA Cup — now called the Korea Cup.

FC Seoul forward Park Chu-young shoots during the K League game against Sangju Sangmu at Sangju Civic Stadium in Sangju, North Gyeongsang on Dec. 1, 2018. [YONHAP]

The 2016 season worked out even better for both Park and FC Seoul as they won the league, thanks in part to the 10 goals he scored.

His clear impact on the squad earned him the captain armband in the 2017 campaign and saw him spend a couple more seasons at the capital side until his departure at the end of the 2021 season.

Ending in Ulsan

Park’s call to move to Ulsan Hyundai — now called Ulsan HD — added even more silverware to his trophy cabinet. His first season ended with Ulsan winning the K League 1 for the first time in 17 years.

Ulsan HD's Park Chu-young, center, in action during the K League 1 match against FC Seoul at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on Sunday, Nov 10. [YONHAP]

His career saw a shift in the following season as he took a player-coaching role at the team, but he was still able to add another title.

He has mostly stayed as a coach this season, when Ulsan won the third straight league title, having played one game this year against FC Seoul in front of his former team’s fans.

Park now retires as a veteran of both the K League and Korean national team, with 68 senior caps, 25 goals and six assists he piled up across multiple matches including two World Cups, two Asian Cups and of course, that Olympics.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]