Park Ji-Sung made his 200th appearance for United last weekend in our 3-3 draw with Chelsea.
When Park joined United for £2m in 2005 several people claimed it was just to appeal to the Asian market in order to sell more shirts. Those people obviously didn’t watch him play for PSV against AC Milan in the Champions League a few months before we bought him.
Since then he has won four league titles and has developed the reputation of a big game player, having scored against the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.
“I am proud to reach this mark,” said Park. “I never thought I could play 200 matches for Manchester United. Some people did say those things (shirt-seller) when I came here. Now no-one says it. I am very happy that I proved Asian players can deal with the high levels of European football. Before I came here, I believed I could do it but I wasn’t sure. But the manager believed in me. He encouraged me to deal with these kinds of levels. He told me to fight. That made a big difference for me to adapt to English football.”