When Park Ji-sung takes the field for his third game in a Manchester United shirt at Hong Kong Stadium today, many cynics will see it as a token gesture, a nod to the replica kit sales market in this region.
But Sir Alex Ferguson will have none of that, talking avidly instead of the player's authentic credentials to stake a place in the world's most celebrated club. More than that, the United manager sees Park as a legitimate heir to one of the greatest players of the Scot's silverware-strewn 19-year reign at Old Trafford - Ryan Giggs.
''We were watching Park all last season. We'd got good reports from our chief scout in Holland the year before and were recommended to keep an eye on him for the full season,' Ferguson said. 'His first season at PSV was what you'd expect of a player coming from Korea to Europe - one of development. But he just progressed and progressed. I went to see him myself in the Champions League quarter-final against Lyon and he was outstanding.
'We identified him as a player with great speed, who is two footed. He can play right side, left side or through the middle, and has great, great energy. And these are qualities that we actually need at the moment. Ryan Giggs is now 31 years of age, 32 in November, he's been a fantastic servant - for 15 years he's been up and down the touchline for us, and we really need to think about how we're going to replace him on that side of the pitch.'
Ferguson clearly sees Park (who has already played in the first half of friendlies against Clyde and Peterborough) fitting the bill as the new Giggs. But those are mighty big boots to fill as the Welsh wizard has long been one of the most exciting attacking players in the Premiership.
Park has already scaled international heights during Korea's 2002 World Cup campaign where the rallying cry was 'Be the Reds'. Now he has the chance to be a Red - albeit a Red Devil - all over again.
Whether or not Park constitutes a vanguard for future Asian players to excel in the world's leading leagues remains to be seen but Ferguson would not be surprised by that either. 'I can go back to when I was a coach at Aberdeen in 1979, when we went to Frankfurt in the Uefa Cup and they had the Korean player, Cha Bum-kun, playing for them. I think his son [Cha Du-ri] is now in the Korean national team. Cha was a fantastic athlete and very, very good player, so I think there has always been evidence that there is talent in the Far East, there isn't any question of that. I think what we are getting now are far more athletic, stronger Chinese, Korean and Japanese players particularly.'
