Lee Woon-jae again proved himself to be the number one goalkeeper on the Korean national football team, taking the No.1 jersey number for the 2010 World Cup. Team captain Park Ji-sung will carry No.7, and Park Chu-young of AS Monaco will wear No.10, a symbolic number for a striker.
The numbers were announced just before a friendly match against Spain in Innsbruck, Austria, at 1 a.m. Friday (KST). Under FIFA regulations, players must wear a number between 1 and 23 in the World Cup.
"The numbers were allocated by Coach Huh Jung-moo and other team staff based on players' preferences and the symbolic meaning of each number," a team spokesperson said.
There are no hard rules for number allocation, except for the goalkeeper getting No.1. Lee's No.1 means he is the team’s main goalkeeper, and will likely be the starter in South Africa.
Captain Park's No.7 came as no surprise, as the number is usually given to a leading midfielder who can dribble fast and kick well. Park has been wearing the number in most of the World Cup preliminaries.
Ahn Jung-hwan will wear No.9, a typical number for goal-scoring forwards, while Park Chu-young's No.10 is normally given to the team's ace striker.
Lee Seung-yeoul, the youngest player on the team at 21, was lucky enough to get No.11, which normally represents the fastest player with great technical skills. In a break with the tradition of defenders getting numbers under 10, Cha Du-ri received No.22 as he wished, as his name Du-ri associates with the number two in Korean.
Midfielder Kim Jae-sung did not seem to mind getting No.13, which is considered unlucky in the West. On the contrary, he was delighted as it is the number his high school senior Park Ji-sung wears for Manchester United. Kim is a back-up for Park's position of left wing in the midfield.
Lee Chung-yong of Bolton Wanderers will don No.17, the same number that coach Huh wore as a player when he scored against Italy in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
Defender Kang Min-soo, a late addition to the team replacing injured Kwak Tae-hwi, was given Kwak's No.23. No.6, which had been worn by Shin Hyung-min who did not make it on the final squad, was taken by midfielder Kim Bo-Kyung.
