Park Ji-sung won’t return for World Cup

Park Ji-sung, former captain of the South Korean men’s national football team, won’t return for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the team’s head coach said Friday.

Hong Myung-bo, who will lead South Korea to its eighth consecutive trip to the World Cup this summer, said Park told him he will not come out of international retirement for one last hurrah. “I had a heart-to-heart with Park Ji-sung,” Hong told reporters at Incheon International Airport upon returning from his trip to the Netherlands. Park is currently playing for PSV Eindhoven in the top Dutch league. “He said his knees are worse than he’d feared and that will prevent him from playing for the national team,” Hong said of the veteran with a history of knee injuries. “And I decided to respect his decision.”

Park’s status for the big tournament has been a hot potato in South Korean football so far this year. The 32-year-old said he would no longer play for the national team in January 2011 and has repeatedly said he won’t change his mind.

However, Hong said earlier this year that he planned to speak to Park directly about the issue, saying he would like to have veterans on his squad for the World Cup.

Park’s return is now out of question, and Hong said, without elaborating, that Park offered to help the national team “in any way he can.”

Park, one of the iconic figures in South Korean football, has played 100 matches for South Korea and appeared in three consecutive World Cup tournaments starting in 2010. He has scored at least a goal in each of those three World Cups, helping South Korea reach the semifinals in 2002, when the country co-hosted the tournament with Japan, and then serving as captain of the 2010 World Cup squad that went to the round of 16 in South Africa.

Hong was the captain of the 2002 team.