Sir Alex Ferguson strongly promotes a club over country attitude, which is usually adopted by the players in his team.
Gabriel Heinze was a player who always went against the grain in that sense, picking his national team, Argentina, over United.
After spending the whole season out injured for United, he rushed himself back early to play in the World Cup for his country, which brought about another injury, seeing him miss even more time for us.
When he first signed for us, he joined up with the team late on, after representing his country at the Olympics.
When Patrice Evra signed, Ferguson was more than happy to find a replacement for Heinze, who didn’t take on the same mentality Fergie wants his United players to have.
Park Ji-Sung, who has spent much of the 2007-08 season out injured, won’t be making the same mistake, as it has been announced today he won’t be featuring for his country in the Olympics.
“It is with regret that we have decided not to summon Park Ji-sung for the Olympics,” said Korea’s Olympic coach Park Sung-hwa. “After talking with the KFAs (Korean Football Association) technical committee, we made the decision because his physical condition is not perfect and he faces fierce competition for places at Manchester United.”
Sung-hwa admitted that United have been in touch, firmly stating their desire for Park to be left out of the Olympic squad.
“His club sent an official document stating that Park Ji-Sung needed rest for a while due to the problem with his knee,” he said.
Do you think the club are fair to players who may want to play for their country?
"South Korea Do As They're Told - No Olympics For Park" was originally published at The Republik of Mancunia.
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3 months ago
Dont see why he shouldn't play if he is fit enough, i know serveral liverpool players like mascherano, leto babe etc. are going to the olympics, not saying Rafa is keen on that but he's still letting them go. Representing ones country is an opportunity these guys won't have all to often that too at the Olympics, they should be allowed to enjoy it and do their club and country proud by performing well.
3 months ago
well if he wasn't fit, then he shouldn't play, but some teams do deny their players the chance of olympic gold, which is totally unfair.
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