North Korea may have been sent home from the World Cup early after losing comprehensively in the group stages, but the “People’s Rooney,” striker Jong Tae Sae, has emerged victorious after securing a deal with German club Vfl Bochum for the forthcoming season.
The deal sees Jong sign with the club from Germany’s far west for two years with an option for a further year, according to a statement on the team’s website. He arrives at the German club from Kawasaki Frontale of the J-League.
Vfl Bochum had an arduous season in the 2009 Bundesliga, getting relegated after finishing in the bottom two, so Jong will start his European odyssey in the 2 Bundesliga, but with a good chance of seeing his team return to the top flight at the first time of asking.
Meanwhile, with just one goal for and twelve against in just three games, including shipping seven against Portugal, North Korea were predictably overwhelmed by the competition in South Africa.
However, Jong impressed many with his openness and honesty off the field as much as his work ethic on it. Talking to AFP during the tournament, he said, “Everybody thinks of our country as being closed and mysterious, so we have to change that. We can change for the better if we are more open with the way we talk to people, and it would make a better team.”
All of which led British North Korea watcher Aiden Foster-Carter to muse in a piece for The Nautilus Institute, “If North Korea’s fate must rest in the hands of an untried youth, better it were the warm-hearted and wised-up Jong Tae Se than Kim Jong Eun.”
