Just who is Park Chu-Young?

The South Korean striker, Park Chu-Young, has put pen to paper at Arsenal for an undisclosed fee reported to be £2.6m after running out on a possible move to French side Lille, thus becoming the ninth Korean to play in the English Premier League.

The player left his hotel room in the middle of the night in a bid to seal the move, showing real intent and courage.

The South Korean captain, who has made over 91 appearances for the French club Monaco scored 12 goals in 33 league games last season and has made 53 appearances for South Korea, scoring 17 goals for his country.

He has a keen eye for goal and good technical abilities with 199 appearances for his club, scoring 61 and assisting 19 times, as well as taking over the role as captain of South Korea from the former international and Manchester United winger, Park Ji-Sung.

Park was named the Asian Young Footballer of the Year by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 2005, and won the top rookie award in South Korea's K-League later that year with 18 goals in 30 games.

"I had to choose between Lille and Arsenal," said Park Chu-Young to Arsenal’s Official Site as he arrived home in South Korea on Monday for national team duty. "I wanted to choose without regret." Whether Arsène Wenger will say the same after signing the 26-year-old striker remains to be seen.

However, Park has been a huge star in his homeland since becoming Asian Young Player of 2004 and impressing for FC Seoul from 2005. Later, he suffered from injuries and loss of form, but that is all behind him.

"It is a dream to be here and I am really proud to be an Arsenal player," he said. "Now I just want to show how good I am and prove myself. I will do my best, I will never give up, I will show heart, I will give everything and I hope (the fans) will support me."

The club said that Park will wear No. 9. Though his name is spelled "Chu-Young," Park prefers "Ju-Young," and his shirt will declare "J.Y.Park" on the back.

WTTGT Writer: Gareth Fletcher

Comments

[chris]

Park looks a good player if the Bolton highlights are a measure. He not only scored a beauty, taken with real confidence, but he also linked well with those around him. If that's an early picture of him then we can also be encouraged by his stated willingness to work hard and give his best. Good luck, Park. Welcome to the Emirates.

[Arsenal1Again]

He's an impact player. If brought into play with adequate time to make an impact, he will do something positive. He is best deployed in the last 30 mins of a match when he can play at his furious pace until the final whistle. If he started a game, his effectiveness in the last 3rd of the match will be a shadow of his earlier performance. At a start of a game the opposition players will be sharp, full of energy and pace. This will cancel out Ju-Young Park - which is why he's best used as an impact player.

For a defense he is a real nuisance because he draws defenders from their positions to allow a team-mate a clear run at goal. This is what he does best. Of previous players, I would liken him to Ian Wright without the bookings. He will get into danger areas like nobody else can, but I think he'll be more inclined to pass the ball to a team-mate when he does, instead odf shooting at goal like Wright would.

I have no idea what this fear of shooting is at Arsenal. In recent years we've seen Van Persie being the most guilty, Hleb was a legend at not shooting. Bendtner was always a shooter, this is why I liked him, besides Henry, our last best trigger puller was Marc Overmars, yeah that long. Bergkamp and Pires were passers, Walcott just gets lucky sometimes .... though Arteta and Song have some cracks at the goal. A player whose trademark it was to score 30 yard screamers is Rosicky. This guy was renowned for it when he wasn't orchestrating build up play. What happened there? Rosicky was very much like Van Bronckhorst in this respect. He too shot at goal from distance.