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And on the 15th day, a "World Cup Couple" was born. Todd Ryan (Korean name Yoon Han-gyu), a 25-year-old Korean-American adoptee to the United States, and Um Young-sun, a 31-year-old swimming instructor in Seoul, will tie the knot on June 15 just so they can ¡°see the Korea-Portugal match on the 13th,¡± they say, laughing.
Um is a sports fanatic who loves soccer and mountain biking. In 2000, she participated in a 2000-km biking trek from Paris to Berlin with a civil group to promote the World Cup. Last August, she went on a nationwide bicycle tour where she met Ryan. Ryan was left at an orphanage in Jinhae, Gyeongnam when he was a baby and was adopted by a middle-class family in Minnesota when he was two years old. He took a leave of absence and was in Korea to learn his mother tongue, before deciding to go on the bicycle tour.
Riding from Seoul to Jeju Island together for about a month, the two shared interests in movies, sports, and travel, and their relationship blossomed from a "elder sister- brother" relationship to a romantic one.
Ryan, who did not know anything about soccer and its rules such as headers, corner kicks, or penalty kicks, has become a professor of soccer after meeting Um. On June 10, during the Korea-U.S. World Cup match, Um gave him a stern look after catching him rooting for both countries. Ryan says, ¡°I am going to hold warm memories of Korea as an exciting country that is filled with enthusiasm for soccer and will try to live as an honorable U.S. citizen.¡±
(Kim Su-hye, goodluck@chosun.com )
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