Scholes' 'nightmare'

Paul Scholes is regularly one of the names that crops up in conversation when football fans discuss the greatest midfielders in Premier League history, so his opinion holds some weight. Coming up against the likes of Roy Keane, Juan Sebastian Veron and Owen Hargreaves on a daily basis in training, there was some surprise when Scholes mentioned Park as his most challenging team-mate to get by.

In a conversation with his former team-mate Wes Brown on MUTV's Group Chat series in 2020, Scholes said he was haunted by the South Korean's man-marking skills: "Do you know who the worst one was? Park Ji-sung. He was a nightmare! He was unbelievable."

Scholes added: "He just used to come up to me, look at me and not say a word, stand right next to me... 'Oh Jesus, here we go!' 'Come on, ginge!' – Just say something to me, have a laugh with me! But he was unbelievable at it. He just used to come and stare right into my face, stare right into my eyes, 'You’re not getting a kick today'."

The former England midfielder pointed to his memorable display in nullifying the threat of Andrea Pirlo - then at AC Milan - in their Champions League last-16 knockout tie in the 2009-10 season as a reminder of how difficult he was to play against. "Do you remember when he did it against Pirlo? Ah, he was unreal! He had energy all day and discipline. The discipline was unreal."