When fans talk of Manchester United’s last great team under Sir Alex Ferguson, the names of Rooney, Ronaldo and Ferdinand will trip off the tongue first.
But there were many important contributions to a great five-year spell between 2006 and 2011 when the club seized four Premier League titles and reached three Champions League finals in four years.
Not all achieved Ballon d’Or nominations, or won Golden Boots, but United wouldn’t have soared the heights if not for their presence.
Few were as modest and devoted as Ji-sung Park – the first Asian to play for United, and someone who former Reds rarely miss an opportunity to praise.
But what was it about Park that so impressed his world-famous colleagues? We’ve put together four testimonies from Ji’s peers that explain just why he was so central to our success.
“It’s crazy but if you mentioned Cristiano Ronaldo to a 12-year-old, they would immediately say, 'Yeah, he was a brilliant player for Manchester United. But if you said ‘Ji-sung Park’, they may not know who he was. Yet all of us who played with Park know he was almost as important to our success. That’s because of what Park gave to the collective and I want to talk about teams. They — not stars — are the most important thing in sport.
“I remember him as a big-game player. When the big games came around, against the likes of Arsenal and the big Champions League sides, he always stepped up to the plate. He was a great team-mate and a real humble lad in the dressing room. He just went about his job diligently.
“Whatever the manager set out for him to do, whether it was defend against somebody, stop someone playing or go in there and make a difference in the opposing team’s box, he’d carry that out. He was that good.
“This man doesn't get enough credit, and that's not just because he's one of my best friends. It's because he was a soldier. The semi-final in 2008, against Barcelona, both legs he was the Man of the Match. He is definitely one of my soldiers. Did I learn Korean? It's difficult, because they don't have an alphabet like ours. I've been in Korea four times, but it's hard. I speak six languages but I only know a few words!”