Park predicts decade until Asian triumph

Manchester United's former Kore Republic midfielder Park Ji-Sung has predicted that an Asian country will bring home the FIFA World Cup™ in a decade. Park told the China Daily that Asian teams still had a way to go before they could triumph in football's most prestigious tournament, but said they were improving quickly.

"There is a gap between us and the world-class level, so we still have to improve. But in the past few years, the quality of Asian football has gotten better and we have proved we can deal with world-class teams," he said.

"So, if Asian teams work hard and continue to develop, one day they will have success at the World Cup... not now but maybe in ten years time an Asian country will win the World Cup," Park added.

Asia's best performance yet in the FIFA World Cup was in 2002, when Korea Republic - playing as co-hosts with Park in the side - reached the semi-finals. The next global finals will be held in 2014 in Brazil, followed by Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.