LONDON: Retired South Korean football great Park Ji-sung is confronting a new challenge in Europe’s best sports management course at De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester, England.
The 35-year-old former Manchester United midfielder – who won the Champions League among many other titles when he was at the club from 2005-2012 – said he saw it as the best avenue for him to potentially pursue a career in the Korean football league administration afterwards.
The course – run by the Swiss Centre International d’Etude du Sport (CIES) and delivered by DMU – was last year named as Europe’s best sports management course and the year before that claimed top spot in SportBusiness International’s world rankings.
“One of my colleagues said it had been a great experience and though many players go into coaching or management, I wanted to improve my knowledge of football around the pitch and then perhaps work in the South Korean football league,” Park told the DMU website.
Park, one of 31 foreign students taking the year long course which also includes semesters in Milan and Neuchatel in Switzerland, said looking back on his career there was one clear standout campaign.
“Of my own career I have many happy memories but perhaps it the 2010/11 season, where United broke the record for number of title wins, was the best,” said Park, who skippered Korea at the 2010 World Cup finals.
“I was very satisfied with my performance that year.”--AFP