Choi Soon-ho (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 최순호;

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 崔淳鎬; born 10 January 1962) is a former

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and player.

International career

Choi was named in the

n squad for the 1980 AFC Asian Cup. He scored seven goals including two goals against

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

, and a hat-trick against

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

in the group stage. South Korea met Kuwait again at the final, but they lost this time. Choi became the youngest player to be the top scorer in the history of the AFC Asian Cup at age 18. In March 1981, he won the 1980 AFC Youth Championship, in which he scored four goals, with the South Korea under-20 team. He also played at the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship in the same year. He defeated

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

4–1 in the first game by recording two goals and two assists. However, South Korea was eliminated in the group stage after losing to

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Choi was selected for the South Korean squad for the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

. He contributed to more than half of the team's 17 goals with one goal and eight assists in eight games of the

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

. He scored a goal outside the penalty area against

. He finally recorded two assists as well as a goal in the World Cup, proving his abilities outside Asia. A

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club Juventus was interested in Choi after the World Youth Championship. Its interest lasted until the end of the 1986 World Cup, but his team POSCO consistently rejected its offer.

Style of play

Regarded as one of the most technically gifted forwards in South Korea, Choi was proficient at controlling the ball with various skills including shot, dribble, touch, and pass. He also showed good speed, wide vision and supple body, having hardly any weak point. He normally played as a striker, but he could also play as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

to create chances.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Results list South Korea's goal tally first.''

Honours

Player

POSCO Atoms *

K League 1 The K League 1 (Hangul: K리그1) is the men's top professional football division of the South Korean football league system. The league is contested by twelve clubs. History The South Korean professional football league was founded in 1 ...

: 1986 * Korean Semi-professional League: 1982 * Korean Semi-professional League (Autumn): 1981 * Korean National Championship runner-up: 1985 Lucky-Goldstar Hwangso *

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

* Korean National Championship: 1988 South Korea U20 * AFC Youth Championship: 1980 South Korea * Asian Games: 1986 * AFC Asian Cup runner-up: 1980 *

Dynasty Cup Dynasty Cup was an East Asian international association football tournament. The tournament was held every 2 or 3 years. It was hosted by Beijing in 1990 and 1992, Hong Kong in 1995, Yokohama and Tokyo in 1998. In 2002 the East Asian Football F ...

Afro-Asian Cup of Nations The Afro-Asian Cup of Nations, also called the AFC Asia/Africa Challenge Cup, was an intercontinental football competition endorsed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), contested between repr ...

: 1987 Individual * AFC Asian Cup top goalscorer: 1980 * AFC Asian Cup Team of the Tournament: 1980 * Korean FA Best XI: 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986 * AFC Youth Championship Most Valuable Player: 1980 * AFC Youth Championship top goalscorer: 1980 * K League 1 Best XI: 1984 * Korean FA Player of the Year: 1990 * K League 30th Anniversary Best XI: 2013

Manager

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard *

Korea National League The Korea National League was a South Korean semi-professional football league held annually from 2003 to 2019. It was considered the second-highest division of the South Korean football league system before the K League 2 was launched in 2013 ...

: 2007, 2008 *

Korean President's Cup The President's Cup National Football Tournament is a football competition, held by Korea Football Association, for South Korean semi-professional and amateur football clubs. This competition was originally one of major club competitions of So ...

: 2008 Individual *

Manager of the Year: 2007, 2008 *

Best Manager: 2008

References

External links

*
Choi Soon-ho – National Team Stats
at KFA * *
International Appearances & Goals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choi, Soon-Ho 1962 births Living people Association football midfielders South Korean footballers South Korean expatriate footballers South Korea international footballers South Korean football managers Pohang Steelers managers Gangwon FC managers Pohang Steelers players FC Seoul players FC Seoul non-playing staff Rodez AF players K League 1 players Ligue 2 players 1980 AFC Asian Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of South Korea People from Cheongju Expatriate footballers in France South Korean expatriate sportspeople in France Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 1982 Asian Games Footballers at the 1986 Asian Games Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for South Korea Asian Games bronze medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 1986 Asian Games Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games FIFA Century Club Sportspeople from North Chungcheong Province