South Korea hero Ahn Jung-Hwan, who scored the golden goal to knock Italy out of the World Cup, has been axed by his Italian club Perugia, according to the team's president.
Luciano Gaucci, interviewed on Italian private television station La 7last night, said he would not be renewing Ahn's contract.
The 26-year-old Ahn was the golden boy of the K.League during his two year stint with Busan I.cons and he hit the headlines when he became the first Korean to play in Italy's Serie A with Perugia.
Ahn earned an extension on his loan period to the Italian club with a run of goals at the end of 2000/01 season but he was not a regular in the side last season.
"I am not extending his contract, he does not merit it," Gaucci said. "When he arrived, he was like a little lost goat who didn't even have the money to buy a sandwich. He became rich without doing anything exceptional and then, at the World Cup, he denigrated Italian football.
"I would have to pay euro1.6million approx. to extend his contract. But I won't.
"Ahn will never play for Perugia again. What do you think I would do? That I would keep a player who ruined Italian football. He should have shown his talent while he was with us. He'll just have to go back to Korea and earn 53 approx. a month."
Ahn, Korean football's pin-up boy, went into the Italy game yesterday still needing to prove himself to coach Guus Hiddink who before the World Cup ridiculed the Perugia player for not being fit to play a full match.
He left the Daejeon stadium a contented man after heading in the most important goal in the history of South Korean football to complete the 2-1 victory.
AFP