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The relative scarcity of surnames in Korea will lead to a change in the way Korean national football players will be identified on their jerseys. Thus the Manchester United striker currently wearing a shirt that reads J S PARK will instead be identified as JISUNG.
¡°There are many players in the nation with the same last name, and distinguishing among them can be difficult,¡± the Korean Football Association said Tuesday. The current system ¡°also makes it difficult to increase international name recognition, so we have decided to change it.¡± In the case of the national squad put up against Angola on March 1, Kim and Lee accounted for 12 out of 23 players, more than half. Three players -- Kim Do-hun, Kim Doo-hyun and Kim Dong-hyun ? in the national team are identified as D H KIM.
The new jerseys will first be donned in friendlies at the end of May and later be seen at the World Cup in Germany. The system has already been tried and tested with the national women's youth team last April, and the national women¡¯s team started to use it in the East Asia Football Federation games last August.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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