Yonhap Interview) S. Korean spreads hope in Thailand through football (ATTN: Photos available) By Tony Chang

SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- A lone missionary who once made a living playing with a
soccer ball, Kang Sung-min now finds himself tasked with transforming a group of
untrained indigenous kids in a tropical nation into a competent football team.
As fictional as it may sound, it is a real-life situation for the 47-year-old
former freestyle footballer who encountered the Moken, a traditionally nomadic
Austronesian ethnic group settled near the border of Thailand and Myanmar, last
year.
"There was no field, the kids had no shoes, there was no coach and ages were all
mixed, ranging from eight to 15," Kang recalled of his first impression of the
children in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday.
In the 1980s and early 90s, Kang was a star in freestyle football, an expressive
art form combining various body tricks using a football.
His performances included one at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and he won a
sponsorship from Dunhill and spent two years in Paris, holding shows during Paris
Saint-Germain F.C. games.
As his religious faith was deepening, he traveled to Thailand in 1993 for a
one-time exhibition event with a professional South Korean football club.
He returned to Thailand in 1995, and since then has created a league of 100
football teams, called the Immanuel League, with children from 100 different
churches. The league holds regular games and opens football camp every April.
Two of his players advanced to Thailand's national team.
After Kang established the 99th team, a fellow missionary talked him into meeting
the Mokens.
Forming teams and training young footballers was nothing new to him, but in the
case of the Mokens, it was a different story.
"That was one of the regions hit hard by the 2004 tsunamis that devoured
Southeast Asia. I was told that the kids, who didn't even have shoes, loved
football. So I was introduced to train the kids and form my 100th youth football
team."
Kang's journey -- from training the team of 20 Moken children the basic skills to
coaching them in a regional tournament -- was recently captured in the
documentary film "Calling 2: Moken World Cup."
The Mokens reached the second round, only to be beaten by a fully trained and
equipped local school team. Their performance was well-received by the crowd,
however, considering they played barefoot and had never seen a grass field, Kang
said.
"I've never seen kids who were that happy when rolling a football. The Mokens had
no nationality or even birth dates, but the children could achieve their dreams
through football."
Kang also coaches Thailand's U-12 national football team that took part in the
2010 International U-12 Championships held in Suwon, South Korea, late last
month. Thailand took the championship.
Fellow missionaries have also asked him to build a football team with children of
the Karens, another tribe near the border of Thailand and Myanmar, many of them
living in refugee camps.
"My goal is to form a total of 200 football teams by 2020 and raise great
football leaders and athletes to lead the Thai football scene," Kang said.
He is also hoping to build a 17-million-square meter football center in the city
of Korat, where children from all parts of Thailand can receive more systematic
football training.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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