Star Snippets: Park Ji-sung, Jiang Chen, Marvin Sonsona …..

January 2, 2010 | Posted by Benjie

South Korea’s Park Ji-sung was named one among the CNN Football Heroes of the Decade. Park was cited for his role of leading the Asians in the prestigious football leagues across the globe. He was the first Asian to play in the Champions League. Therein after, Asians have been starting to invade the premier leagues.

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Jiang Chen of China has rejoined his teammates in Tianjin Teda after being loaned to Wellington Phoenix in the Australasian A-League in New Zealand. The 23-year old striker native of Dalian played only a couple of games for the Wellington-based club. Chen is expected to lead his mother club to a decent finish in the Chinese Super League this season.

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Japan’s national football coach Takeshi Okada remains optimistic about his country’s semi-final appearance in the upcoming World Cup. Okada told Reuters that his players have begun to believe in his reasonable target of achieving the final four. Earlier, he was subject to criticism even in his home country for his unrealistic goal in the World Cup.

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Filipino Marvin Sonsona is set of face the son and namesake of Puerto Rican legend Wilfredo Vasquez on February 27 in Puerto Rico. Sonsona first rose to fame back in September of last year when he defeated Jose Lopez via a Unanimous Decision to capture the WBO super flyweight title at a tender age of 19. He became the second youngest Filipino boxing champion after Morris East did the feat in 1992.

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Japanese Yasutaka Kuroki is scheduled to defend his OPBF minimum weight crown against compatriot Takumi Suda on February 1 in Tokyo. The 27-year old native of Ibaragi hopes to continue his two-fight winning streak after figuring in a draw against fellow Japanese Junichiro Kaneda in March 27, 2009. Kuroki’s record currently stands at 22-3-1 with 14 KOs.