10 Pro Evolution Soccer Legends Who Flopped In Real Life
2. Park Chu Young
Konami had a habit of inflating the stats of some of Pro Evo’s most notable Asian stars. The likes of Park Ji-Sung and Hidetoshi Nakata ranked among some of the best midfielders on the game, for example.
But while Park and Nakata did plenty to warrant those padded numbers, others were decidedly less deserving. South Korea’s Park Chu-Young was a prime example.
The forward was a force to be reckoned with on early editions of PES where his dynamic dribbling skills and unerring accuracy in front of goal saw him rank among the game’s best kept secrets.
He was even better on the game’s Master League feature – emerging as one of the very best players on the game.
An expert free kick taker, the South Korean’s stats put him on a par with Chile legend Marcelo Salas on those initial incarnations – but it didn’t last.
Despite impressing during his first spell in Europe with AS Monaco, Park made the fateful error of turning his back on a move to Lille in favour of joining Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
Park went on to play just seven minutes of first-team football in his first six months at the Emirates. He ended up making just one Premier League appearance for the Gunners during a reputation-wrecking four year stay at the club that included loan moves to Watford and Celta Vigo.
The former South Korea national team captain is now back with his first club FC Seoul in the K-League.