Player of the Week - Ki Sung-yeung

Swansea surprise Man Utd on opening day!

The opening day of the Premier League season started with a nasty suprise for Manchester United and a great result for Swansea City.  The Swans, from Wales, beat The Red Devils 2-1 and won a league game at Old Trafford for the first time in their 102 year history. The match was Manchester United's Louis van Gaal's first competitive game as manager, but won't be remembered by him or Man Utd fans with much joy. The opening goal was scored by Swansea City's Ki Sung-yeung and, despite Man Utd's Wayne Rooney equalising just after half-time, Swansea won the game with a goal from Icelandic midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson. 

Who was Man of the Match?

There were a few possiblilities for Man of the Match and one of them was Man Utd's Wayne Rooney. Rooney has been chosen as the new Manchester United captain and gave a captain's performance, scoring the equaliser with a bicycle kick and later hitting the post with a fantastic free-kick. However, after their fantastic performance, the Man of the Match has to go to a player from the Swansea team.  All of the Swansea players played well, including Sigurdsson, who scored the winning goal on his second debut for Swansea, and Lukasz Fabianski, Swansea's new goalkeeper, who has signed from Arsenal. But our Man of the Match was the South Korean midfielder Ki Sung-yeung, who, in his first competitive game for Swansea in over a year, had a great game and scored his first ever goal for Swansea to help them to a famous victory. 

"I don't think anyone expected us to win. But every single player deserved it."  Ki Sung-yeung

What do we know about Ki Sung-yeung?

Ki Sung-yeung was born in January 1989 and is from Gwangju, which is a city of over a million people in the south of South Korea. When Ki was 12 years old, he went to study in Australia because his dad saw this as a good opportunity to play football and study English at the same time. He studied and played football for 5 years in Australia and used 'David' as his English name! He became fluent in English while studying in Australia.

"This is something that I have dreamt about since I was a child - playing in the Premier League, against the best players in the world."  Ki Sung-yeung

In 2006 he returned to South Korea to play for FC Seoul. After three successful seasons at FC Seoul, Ki moved abroad again. This time he moved to Scotland to play for Celtic. During his time with Celtic, Ki won both the Scottish League and Scottish Cup and in 2012 moved to the Premier League to play for Swansea City.

What has Ki achieved in the Premier League?

 When Ki signed for Swansea, he became the Welsh club's most expensive signing at about £6 million and made over 30 appearances for the club. He also won a League Cup winners medal when, in 2013, Swansea won their first major trophy in English football. Despite this, in August 2013, Ki was sent on loan to Sunderland for the 2013/14 season. Ki was also successsful in the Sunderland team, and played in his second Wembley Final in two seasons when Sunderland reached the League Cup Final in 2014. Ki was one of the stars of the competition and scored against Chelsea in the quarter-final and also scored the winning penalty in a shoot-out against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the semi-final. Unfortunately, there was was no happy ending this time because Sunderland lost 3-1 in the Final to Manchester City. 

"I am back in the team and I want to play for Swansea and fight for my place."  Ki Sung-yeung

Has Ki had success with South Korea?

Ki has made over 60 appearances for the South Korean national team and has been a regular in the team since he made his debut in June 2008. He has played in two World Cup Finals and played in all three of South Koreas' matches at Brazil 2014. It wasn't a successful tournament for the Koreans; they didn't win any of their three matches. The London Olympics in 2012 was a happier ocassion for Ki and South Korea. Ki scored the winning penalty in a quarter-final shoot-out against Great Britain, and South Korea went on to win a bronze medal after beating Japan 2-0 in the bronze-medal match. It was only the second time an Asian football team won an Olympic medal.

Watch a video of Ki Sung-yeung talking about his match-winning performance against Manchester United on Swansea City's official website.

What did you understand?

Did you know......?

• As a teenager in Australia, Ki was coached by Jeff Hopkins, who is from Swansea! 
• Ki is married to Han Hye-jin, who is a famous actress in South Korea.
• Swansea and Ki won their first major English trophy in 2013, but Swansea have won the Welsh Cup 10 times!.
• Some other famous Koreans to have played in the Premier League include Park Ji-sung (Man Utd) and Ji Dong-won (Sunderland).
• Swansea share their Liberty Stadium with a rugby team called 'Ospreys'.