Ji Dong Wonderful

I've seen in the new year with two football matches featuring my teams. The first, a 1-1 draw between Stoke and Manchester United that might generously be described as "turgid" and accurately described as "absolutely sodding atrocious". The second, a 3-2 defeat for Sunderland at Manchester City, another worthy edition to a fixture that has proved compelling over the past few seasons.

Prior to this season, Sunderland had beaten City 1-0 in four consecutive home fixtures in a run that only came to an end last month in a 4-1 Sergio Aguero inspired pasting at the Stadium of Light. The most dramatic of those took place on this day in 2012.

City dominated the second half with 59% possession but a spirited Sunderland rearguard action kept them at bay, with a particularly impressive contribution from Matt Kilgallon as a 24th minute substitution for Wes Brown. In the 78th minute, Ji Dong Won comes on for Nicklas Bendtner. It's the last minute of injury time. City are throwing everything forward including the kitchen sink. Then this happens.


 

This moment encapsulates quite why I love football so much. It's fair to say Ji Dong Won isn't one of the all time greats. That was the only goal he scored in a competitive fixture for Sunderland. He was widely criticised by fans and largely considered to lack the technical skill or the physique to play in the Premier League. He was later loaned to Augsburg before returning to the club for the start of 2013/14 season. In August 2013, he was publicly criticised by then Sunderland manager and professional lunatic Paolo Di Canio for ducking out of a header in an away fixture at Crystal Palace. The moment seemed to spell the end of the South Korean's Sunderland career. 

No-one knows what happened to him*. But we'll always have 1st January 2012. Andy Warhol once said that in the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes. I say that in the future, everyone will be capable of a moment of Ji Don Wonder.








*He has now joined Augsburg permanently via a brief stint in Borussia Dortmund's reserves.

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