Choi Chung-min (; 30 August 1930 – 8 August 1983) was a former

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

n football player and manager. Nicknamed the "Golden Legs", Choi was one of Asia's greatest strikers in the 1950s.

Playing career

Choi was born in

Taedong Taedong County is a ''kun'' (county) in South P'yŏngan province, North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula ...

and grew up in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

, currently the capacity of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, but he moved south during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. Afterwards, he enlisted in the Korea Army Counter Intelligence Corps. (CIC) He played for CIC's football club and the

South Korea national football team The South Korea national football team (; recognized as Korea Republic by FIFA) represents South Korea in men's international football and is governed by the Korea Football Association. South Korea has emerged as a major football power in Asia ...

since 1952. South Korea went to Japan to play qualifiers for the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzer ...

against Japanese national team. South Korean team felt a heavy burden of the two matches against Japan due to pressure from the South Korean public caused by the Japanese occupation until 1945. He scored three goals during two matches, and South Korea advanced to the World Cup by defeating Japan 7–3 on aggregate. In the

, however, he failed to prevent South Korea's defeats against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Honours

ROK Army CIC * Korean National Championship: 1957, 1959 *

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 ...

: 1952, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961 South Korea * AFC Asian Cup:

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

* Asian Games silver medal: 1954,

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

References

External links

Choi Jeong-min
at KFA 1930 births 1983 deaths South Korean footballers South Korea international footballers South Korean football managers 1954 FIFA World Cup players 1956 AFC Asian Cup players 1960 AFC Asian Cup players AFC Asian Cup-winning players Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 1954 Asian Games Footballers at the 1958 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 1954 Asian Games Medalists at the 1958 Asian Games Association football forwards {{SouthKorea-footy-forward-stub