Parks end 2010 with double honors

The foreign-based duo of Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung and AS Monaco’s Park Chu-young capped off an impressive year for Korean football with an equally impressive double haul of consecutive Player of the Month awards for their respective teams. Both Parks won the Player of the Month award for the months of November and December with Park Ji-sung garnering 40% of all votes tallied, narrowly edging out Dimitar Berbatov, and Park Chu-young garnering an overwhelming 71% of some 1,500 votes cast.

Park Ji-sung’s second Player of the Month award reflects a meritorious upward trend in his performances for United; a string of important goals in November was matched with some superb performances in December –assisting for Anderson’s goal against Valencia FC in the UEFA Champions League and perhaps, most critically, notching the winning goal against title challengers Arsenal in what was the most significant fixture of Manchester United’s schedule this season thus far. The latter contribution, a well-improvised, looping header, had far-reaching ramifications as the title race started to accelerate at the turn of the New Year and has subsequently helped to put some distance between United and the Gunners, who now sit four points adrift of the Red Devils having played one more game.

Patrice Evra speaks on Park Ji-sung’s Player of the Month award and Asian Cup participation

While Park Ji-sung’s contributions reflect the content mood at Old Trafford being perched atop the English Premier League table, Park Chu-young’s second Player of the Month award comes at a crucial juncture for Ligue 1 strugglers Monaco. Having won the Player of the Month for November on the back of an impressive tally of four goals in three games, including his first brace of the season, Park’s second award is largely owed to his winning heroics against Sochaux, a cool finish to win the game in the waning moments of injury time. For the younger Park, however, the accolades may come as little consolation as the player reportedly picked up a knee injury while celebrating his late winner against Sochaux, consequently missing out on the Asian Cup.

Park Chu-young’s Player of the Month of November highlights