Why Korean Sports Fans Love Korean Star Players

18 January 2011

By Tim Lee

Seoul, Korea – “Park Chan-Ho is leaving the MLB???” “Choo Shin-Soo is staying with the Indians!?” For several weeks, this was all that could be heard by MLB (Major League Baseball) fans in Korea. Being in Korea, it is easy to overhear baseball fans (fanatics?) argue about which of their favorite Korean-born MLB players are doing great and which ones are making bad career moves.

My question is: why do Korean MLB fans seem only to support and follow teams that have a Korean-born player?

There are many great baseball players in the MLB- Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, and Miguel Cabrera to name a few- but most Korean sports news channels only have segments on how Korean players are doing in the MLB.

I guess this is very similar to what happens in professional soccer. Just like baseball, fans of foreign soccer leagues (such as the English Premier League) only want to talk about teams that have a famous Korean soccer player in their roster. We’ve all heard how every Premier League fan is a Manchester United FC supporter because of star midfielder Park Ji-Sung. When you’re in Korea you won’t see people wearing Wayne Rooney jerseys, or Paul Scholes jerseys, but you will almost always see a soccer fan wearing Park’s jersey.

I have to admit though; this Korean-centeredness is much more pronounced in soccer than in baseball. The crazy thing is that I can understand this phenomenon. Being Korean myself, I can’t help but feel some sense of pride and accomplishment when someone who is of Korean descent becomes world famous or wins gold at a global competition (think Kim Yu-Na winning Olympic gold for figure skating). This is knowing full well that I had nothing to do with that player’s achievements.

For many Koreans, living in such a tight, cramped country produces the somewhat curious desire to excel because of the stiff competition. You have to be the most special, the most colorful, the most decorated, the most educated, and the most fluent in foreign languages to be noticed in the churning cauldron that is the Korean economy. Korean moms are famous for overworking their children, even during school breaks. And according to a report by the International Institute for Management Development, Koreans work the longest hours among OECD nations.

All of this, of course, is not surprising. Korea’s economy could have only grown to its current state with all that extra hard work and dedication. You don’t just become a global economic entity just by speaking English and adopting the free market approach (look at how the Philippines remains a developing country despite having English as an official language and having a capitalistic economy). You need real grit and determination. And that is exactly what Koreans excels at.

Therefore, I see success- as defined by Koreans- as being distinguished among the huge masses. They have risen in the ranks to become top of the batch not just in Korea, but throughout the world. That is one of the main reasons we Koreans seem to glorify our fellow Koreans who have accomplished this herculean task. These star athletes are shining examples of how every Korean aspires to be successful in our country. So next time you ask yourself why Korean sports fans are so obsessed with Korean stars, now you know at least part of the answer.