Park to play in Asian Cup

Park Eun-seon, a footballer who has recently weathered a controversy over her gender, will represent Korea in next month’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) women’s Asian Cup.

Park, 28, a forward for Seoul City Amazones in the WK-League, was among the 23 players Korea manager Yoon Deok-yeo picked for the tournament in Vietnam, which doubles as a qualification round for the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. Korea is slotted in Group B with Myanmar, Thailand and China. The top five teams in the field of eight will qualify for the World Cup.

Yoon sees his attacking unit anchored by Park and Ji So-yeon, a highly-skilled player now with Chelsea Ladies in the English Women’s Super League, as the team’s core strength. Park last appeared for Korea in an East Asian Games match against Japan in August 2005.

”This year’s Asian Cup is an important tournament that will determine our World Cup status, so we need to bring our very best. I have no doubt that Park’s skills and experience will provide great help to our younger players,’’ Yoon told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Park, a 1.8-meter forward with speed and finishing skills, is clearly one of Korea’s best players. However, she is coming off a traumatic personal experience. In November, the head coaches from six other teams in the WK-League questioned Park’s gender and threatened to boycott this season if the 27-year-old continued to play for the Amazones.

As there was no legitimate reason for anyone to doubt Park was a woman, Seoul City accused its rivals of conspiring to sideline its best player for competitive reasons. Facing a firestorm of criticism, which included a warning from the National Human Rights Commission, the coaches eventually withdrew their demand for Park’s exclusion.

Park’s masculine appearance had previously been a source of complaint ― she was forced to go through a gender test to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics due to questions from other competing nations.

She planned to represent Korea in the 2010 Asian Cup, but excluded herself from the final roster following strong protests from host nation China. Park was then coming out of a five-year, semi-retirement and claimed that her football shape did not warrant the distraction.

Shrugging off her recent gender row, Park has been displaying top form on the field. The Amazones are on top of the league table after seven games this season and Park has been spearheading their attack with seven goals and two assists.

”This feels great. I really wanted to play for the national team again,’’ Park said.

”The past several months have been a tough time for me and I thought about giving up. I thought about playing overseas. I got myself together and decided that the only way I could leave this all behind is to be my absolute best on the field.

”I want to put up a good fight. Our goal is not just getting a ticket to the World Cup but to win the tournament… I felt very empty after my first World Cup in 2003. We lost all three games without really getting a grip on any of them. If I ever get the opportunity to compete in a World Cup again, I will leave no regrets.’’

The KFA, which was criticized over the way it handled Park’s situation in 2010, claims it will be better prepared this time should opposing teams question Park’s gender.

FIFA rules require team doctors to provide the player’s medical records, including data on her sex hormone levels, should opponents cast doubt on her gender. If FIFA concludes the information as insufficient, it can require the player to go through a gender test in a neutral environment. Gender tests include evaluation of external experiences and blood testing to examine sex hormones, genes and chromosomes for sex determination.

”We had our medical department prepare for different types of scenarios. If something like 2010 happens again, we will proceed with FIFA protocol and kill the gender questions once and for all,’’ said Hwangbo Kwan, chairman of KFA’s technical committee. By Kim Tong-hyung The korea times