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North Korea 2010 Home (J. TAE SE #9) Jersey/Shirt

£34.99

This is a LEGEA North Korea national team 2010 home jersey featuring the name and number of legendary striker Jong Tae-se.

Jong Tae-se is arguably one of North Korea’s greatest ever footballers and has had a distinguished club career playing in Germany’s Bundesliga with Vfl Bochum and FC Köln as well as in the top tiers of South Korea and Japan. Tae-se was the key figure in North Korea's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, as they qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 44 years. Jong had made himself famous for sobbing uncontrollably when the North Korean national anthem was played before the kickoff of North Korea’s first group stage match at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, against Brazil. In that match he assisted Ji Yun-Nam's goal in a 2–1 defeat.

Despite North Korea’s reputation globally, their football team has been relatively strong for much of the past 50 years. At their first World Cup appearance in 1966, North Korea reached the Quarter-Finals, defeating Italy in the group stage and being the first Asian team in history to make it past the group stage. They have qualified for the Asian Cup five times, with their best result being a 4th place finish in the 1980 edition. North Korea's 2nd and most recent appearance at the FIFA World Cup was in 2010, when they made it through after finishing above Asian giants Iran and Saudi Arabia in the qualification group. With a final pre-tournament FIFA ranking of 105th in the world, North Korea was the lowest-ranked team to qualify for the World Cup since the rankings began in 1993.  Although they lost all 3 matches in the 2010 World Cup, they shocked the football world with a surprisingly competitive 2-1 loss against superpower Brazil in their opening match.