Soccer’s wildest stories: The forward’s controversial extra-time strike made him a national hero, did not go down well, he sacked for scoring a World Cup winner goal. The forward’s controversial extra-time strike made him a national hero, but it did not go down well with his club side, Perugia
The 2002 World Cup featured no end of shocks and surprises. The first to be hosted in Asia, South Korea and Japan opened the door to the world and invited the likes of England’s ‘Golden Generation’, Luiz Felipe Scolari’s effervescent Brazil and the reigning world champions France, who somehow conspired to finish bottom of their group.
South Korea and Turkey, though, would steal headlines as a pair of dark horses that came within 90 minutes each of the final. The former were beaten 1-0 by Germany in the semi-finals – Turkey lost to Brazil – but only after a remarkable run that saw them beat out Portugal and the United States to top Group D, before beating Italy in the last 16.
That game, however, led to one of the most unbelievable tales in top-level football history, as bitter Perugia – as described by The Guardian – ‘sacked’ Korea’s match-winner Ahn Jung-hwan for his role in the Azzurri’s elimination amid a maelstrom of controversy and allegations.
Serie A struggles
Having emerged from poverty – Ahn only took up football because his local club offered bread and milk to players – the Korean forward began his professional career at Busan Daewoo Royals. In 1999, he won the award for the K-League’s Most Valuable Player, becoming the first player to do so from a team that did not win the title, and earned himself a loan move to Perugia in 2000.
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Ahn, however, struggled immensely in Serie A; he was too slight, too easy to knock off the ball and not clinical enough. He scored just five goals across two seasons in total, though all was not well in the dressing room.
Ahn has revealed since his retirement that he was subjected to racist abuse by veteran defender Marco Materazzi, who accused him of “smelling like garlic”. Garlic is a common ingredient in Korean food, but Ahn was so perturbed by the remark that he stopped eating it altogether.
At the end of his two-year loan, Perugia held an option to extend Ahn’s stay, or even buy him permanently. Neither appeared likely, however, when he headed back home for the World Cup, such was his unease in the dressing room and his performances on the pitch.
Surprise call-up
Having made his international debut in 1997, Ahn missed the 1998 World Cup and struggled to make his way into the squad consistently. His form did not seem good enough to warrant a call-up to South Korea’s World Cup squad in 2002 either, but manager Guus Hiddink kept the faith.
Before the tournament in his homeland, Ahn had scored only three international goals, but Hiddink had seen enough to believe he could offer a significant threat, such was his ability to hold the ball up. The forward has since recalled that Hiddink told him the tournament would “change his life”, and more prescient words may never have left the Dutchman’s mouth.
Making his mark
In a tough group with Poland, the U.S. and Portugal, South Korea came out on top, beating their European opponents and drawing with the States. Ahn scored the only goal in that game, which in turn convinced Hiddink to start him up front against Italy in the knockouts.
The Azzurri, meanwhile, boasted the likes of Paolo Maldini, Gianluca Zambrotta and Christian Vieri, but they had stuttered through their group, beating Ecuador, losing to Croatia and drawing with Mexico. Given the two sides’ form, as well as the Koreans’ home advantage, this was a clash that seen as being more even than many outsiders realised , but few foresaw what was to come.
Golden goal
Within five minutes in Daejeon, Ahn had the opportunity to score the goal of his dreams. South Korea were awarded a penalty after a foul at a corner, although Italy claimed it was simply jostling. The forward, however, had his effort saved by Gianluigi Buffon.
Thirteen minutes later, Vieri put Italy ahead, and it seemed likely they would run up the score and secure safe passage into the quarter-finals. The European powerhouses, however, struggled to find any fluency, and referee Byron Moreno – now a convicted drug trafficker – allowed multiple fouls, including one that injured Zambrotta, to go without proper punishment.
Vieri missed a sitter, Francesco Totti was denied a penalty after being wrestled to the ground, and with just two minutes to go, Seol Ki-Hyun equalised, forcing extra-time. Totti was again fouled in the box once the extra 30 minutes got under way, but was instead booked for diving, giving him a second yellow card that saw him sent off. Italy also had a goal ruled out for an offside so tight that it would have given VAR a headache.
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And then… and then. A cross into the box, Ahn outjumped Maldini, and his header nestled in the bottom corner, with the Golden Goal rules meaning the strike ended the game there an then. South Korea were through to the quarter-finals, where they would go on to beat Spain on penalties.
Much like the rest of Italy, Perugia reacted with fury to Ahn’s goal, though in truth much of the anger from elsewhere in the country was targeted at the officials. he Vatican even got involved, claiming that there had been a conspiracy to eliminate Italy from the competition, resulting in referee Moreno’s inept performance.
Perugia proclaimed that they would sack Ahn, though technically they couldn’t, as he wasn’t their player yet, and they would have been in contravention of FIFA rules if they ripped his contract up. They needed to buy him first, and so while club chairman Luciano Gaucci insisted that he had “no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian football”, Perugia took up the option in Ahn’s deal and signed him on a permanent basis. They had, however, no intention of playing him.
Ahn revealed that after the tournament, his car was vandalised, while local media claimed the mafia were plotting to kill him. Clubs in England, meanwhile, queued up to sign him, and Blackburn Rovers even agreed a deal to sign him. However, in an act of pettiness, Perugia blocked the move, citing contractual obligations, and demanded a fee of $3.8 million (£3m) from any club wanting to secure his signature.
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It put an end to Ahn’s dream of playing in the Premier League – he remains insistent his “life would be different” now had he been given the chance to strut his stuff in England – and essentially left him a prisoner in Perugia. Had he been allowed to make the move, he would have become the first South Korean player in Premier League history; that honour was eventually taken by Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung.
In the end, a Japanese entertainment agency paid Ahn’s release fee, and he was able to join Shimizu S-Pulse in the J.League.
Nomadic existence
While Ahn won the J.League in 2004 with Yokohama F. Marinos, across the final 11 years of his career, he played for seven clubs, including Metz in France and MSV Duisburg in Germany. He announced his retirement in 2012 and has gone on to become a television personality in South Korea. He was also chosen to carry the Olympic torch for the country in 2018.
While he may not be one of the most memorable Serie A players of all time, Ahn scored perhaps the most controversial World Cup goal of the modern era, and has gone down in infamy within Italy as a result.
He has an invaluable legacy, though, and is undoubtedly a South Korea legend, having leapt beyond Maldini to score a goal that shocked the entire world.