Profile Featurette #8

The Asian Influence

Arsenal have often been called the French team of England for their large number of French players. Other teams have also been recognised for their certain ethnic collection - Barcelona for their Brazilians, Liverpool for their Spanish contingent and more recently The Sam FC for their predominantly Asian team. We analyze the latter and the effect the Asians have on the club.

If you were to stroll into Kelburn Park, home of The Sam FC, there is a chance you may initially mistake it for Team Asia. After all The Sam FC is made up of 99% Asian players. From defensive player Tony Ng to striker Geoffrey Wong, The Sam has blended together a mixture of herbs and spices and created a team with the flair and skill of Asia.

The beginning of the Asia Era began when the class of 2004 all retired leaving The Sam as the only first team player left for The Sam. The player/coach/manager/checkout-chick then sent his scouts all over the world for possible The Sam recruits.

Scouts searched far and wide, from Armenia to Zambia but it became clear that the Asian market was the place to look. After all, it was home to players with the skill of Brazilians and outrageous hairstyles, not to mention all Asian countries have a soccer shop in every town and city.

The Sam quickly snapped up Bum Joon Kim (Rep. of Korea), Chaz Hornblow (Papua New Guinea) and Keith Lee (Malaysia).

Early 2005 saw an influx of more Asians into The Sam. In came the Chinese (Arthur, Derek, Geoff, Tony, Winter), the Vietnamese (Duc, Hieu, Pake) and another Korean (Seung).

The Asian Invasion had brought major marketing success to The Sam and soon after many other clubs followed suit, sending scouts to Asia for players. The Challenge brought in an ensemble of Chinese, Vietnamese Fantasy brought in...Vietnamese.

But apart from marketing success, The Asian-influenced team have provided The Sam with success in the beautiful game. Medals and trophies began appearing in the trophy cabinet, and now The Sam have established themselves as one of the top ten best clubs in the world alongside Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan.

This year The Sam have lost some of their players who went back to Asia. Derek Wang and Seung Park (the most popular shirt seller in Asia, even above Beckham) are the two biggest losses. Bum Joon Kim and Winter will soon join the exodus as clubs around the world are now looking to Asians for football glory.

But The Sam have added Dave Abbondanzieri, a player of Sri Lankan descent to their team roster, one that is already dominated by Asian names.

And why not? After all, girls everywhere in Japan wear Hornblow shirts, school boys in China wake up to watch The Sam play at odd hours of the morning and Koreans everywhere shout 'BUM JOON! BUM JOON!'