While football has moved around the world from its roots in England during the 18th century, the progress of non-European players has sometimes been hindered, with racism a continuing problem in many countries.
Manchester United were crowned FIFA Club World Cup Champions in 2008,[2] which exemplified the importance of ethnic diversity in a team - only three of the players in their championship game were of English background.
John Nauright (2004)[3] explains that during the globalisation process, local and national identity is celebrated especially during significant sporting events such as the Football World Cup.
An estimated 715.1 million people from different countries and ultimately ethnic backgrounds watched the Football World Cup in 2006 which makes it the most viewed event in history.
Since then aspiring players from different ethnic backgrounds have strived to play in this league to achieve fame, money and satisfaction of reaching a defining peak in football excellence.
[citation needed] This has in turn increased the ethnic diversity within the sporting code but also brought to attention the apparent racism associated among the players.
This was seen in the France national team which won the 1998 FIFA World Cup: the squad was composed of Frenchmen of various backgrounds, including immigrants from or descendants of several countries/colonies, such as Argentina (David Trezeguet), Senegal (Patrick Vieira), French Guiana (Bernard Lama), Martinique (Thierry Henry), Guadeloupe (Lilian Thuram and Bernard Diomède), Ghana (Marcel Desailly), plus a New Caledonian (Christian Karembeu), an ethnic Armenian and Kalmyk (Youri Djorkaeff), another player of Armenian descent (Alain Boghossian), a Basque speaker (Bixente Lizarazu) as well as captain Didier Deschamps from the same region, a Breton (Stephane Guivarc'h), Robert Pires whose parents hailed from Portugal and Spain, and an ethnic Berber (Zinedine Zidane).
[8] On November 27, 2005, Marc Zoro, a player from Côte d'Ivoire, was playing for the Italian team Messina when he was racially abused by Inter Milan fans to the extent that he picked up the ball and threatened to leave the field.
[11] This came at the same time that European Union legislators were threatening Europe-wide legal sanctions against national football associations and clubs whose fans were seen to take part in racist actions.
Names such as "Hellas", "Croatia" and "Juventus" were removed from clubs in an attempt to draw new supporters from outside of these ethnic groups, but falling attendances and financial difficulties caused the NSL to be disbanded.
[citation needed] Park may be preceded by the Japanese player Hidetoshi Nakata, who played at various European clubs such as Perugia, AS Roma, Parma, Bologna, Fiorentina and lately at Bolton Wanderers.
Another Japanese player, Shunsuke Nakamura, overcame criticism of his lack of pace and stamina, and helped seal Celtic's 2006–07 Scottish Premier League title.