Jong Tae-se, also known as is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. Born in Japan, he represented the North Korea national team internationally, notably appearing at the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. He is one of few North Koreans who have played in the Japanese

J-League The , commonly a.k.a. shortened to the , and officially known as the for sponsorship with Meiji Yasuda Life, is the men's association football league in Japan. It is responsible for organizing Japan's major professional football tournaments, in ...

and the German 2. Bundesliga.

Early life and nationality

Jong was born in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

, Japan to a father who has South Korean citizenship and a mother who has Joseon citizenship, and became a South Korean national based on the father's family register at the time of birth. His mother sent him to attend a private school in Japan run by

Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan,
" ''

, a group closely tied to the North Korean government – where he started football at its elementary school club. He later attended

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a Private university, private research university in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1905 by Yi Yong-ik, Lee Yong-Ik, a prominent official of the Korean Empire, Korea University is among South Korea's oldest List of ...

, a private university in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

also funded by Chongryon. Consequently, Jong has said that he and his family identify themselves as North Koreans. Chongryon, functioning as North Korea's ''de facto'' embassy in Japan, issued a North Korean passport to him. This made him eligible, per

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

and AFC rules, to play for North Korea and resulted in ''de facto''

dual nationality Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one country under its nationality and citizenship law as a national or citizen of that country. There is no ...

. Jong is fluent in

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. He also knows how to speak

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

which he learned from his Brazilian teammates at Japan's

Kawasaki Frontale is a Japanese professional football club based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. The club currently compete in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium i ...

, and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

from playing in Germany. Jong publicly emphasized the separation between

sportsmanship Sportsmanship is an aspiration or ethos that a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, and with proper consideration for wikt:fairness, fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors. A "sore loser" r ...

and

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

after the disputes before and during the match between North Korea and Japan on 15 November 2011.

Club career

After joining

in 2006, the striker quickly rose to become one of Kawasaki's best players and one of the best strikers in the

. Jong went for a trial with English club

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

in early 2010. After the 2010 World Cup, Jong joined German club

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German professional association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. They currently play ...

. After seasons in the 2. Bundesliga, Jong transferred to

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English language, English, is a German professional association football, football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 ...

in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

in January 2012, following an injury to German international

Lukas Podolski Lukas Josef Podolski (; born Łukasz Józef Podolski, , 4 June 1985) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward or attacking midfielder for Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze. He is kno ...

. However, his time at 1. FC Köln was marred by a lack of playing time. On 3 January 2013, Jong announced that after he would start playing for the first-division South Korean K-League club,

Suwon Samsung Bluewings The Suwon Samsung Bluewings () are a South Korean Association football, football club based in Suwon that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in December 1995, they have won the K League on four occas ...

. He had expressed interest in the move for several months before the announcement, and the Bluewings and

Ulsan Hyundai FC Ulsan HD FC (), formerly Ulsan Hyundai FC, is a South Korean professional Association football, football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined ...

had both been negotiating with him. Jong joined the South Korean outfit on 10 January 2013 for a reported fee of €300,000 from 1. FC Köln. After deliberation by

K League 1 The K League 1 () is a professional association football league in South Korea and the highest level of the South Korean football league system. The league is contested by twelve clubs. It is one of the most successful leagues in the Asian Foo ...

and

authorities, Jong was registered as a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n (domestic) player in the K-League and

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

competitions. On 6 April, he scored his debut goal for Suwon in a 3–1 home win against

Daegu FC Daegu FC () is a South Korean professional football club based in Daegu. The club was founded as a community club at the end of 2002, and made their K League 1 debut in 2003. Daegu has played mostly in the K League 1 but was relegated at the ...

. Two weeks later, 20 April, he scored a hat-trick in a 4–1 win at

Daejeon Citizen Daejeon Hana Citizen FC () is a South Korean professional football team based in Daejeon, competing in K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. At the time of its foundation in 1997, Daejeon was the first community-owned club in South K ...

. On 8 July 2015, he was bought by

Shimizu S-Pulse is a Japanese professional association football, football club located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka (city), Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. S-Pulse is going to compete in the J1 League for the 2025 Season, after winning promotio ...

as an emergency signing as Shimizu were in the drop zone after total points calculation from both stages of the season. He was inserted into the starting lineup on 25 July, Matchday 4 of the 2nd stage, away to his former club Kawasaki Frontale which ended in a 3–2 defeat.

International career

Jong's first international appearance was on 19 June 2007, during a 2008 East Asian Football Championship qualifier match against

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and he scored his first international goal in that game. He went on to score a total of four goals which Korea DPR won the match 7–0. Jong also played at the 2008 East Asian Football Championship and scored two goals in three matches for Korea DPR, receiving top scorer honors along with Park Chu-young,

Yeom Ki-hun Yeom Ki-hun (; born 30 March 1983) is a South Korean association football, football manager and former player. Early life Yeom was a Modern pentathlon, modern pentathlete while attending elementary school, but started playing football at Nons ...

and

Koji Yamase is a Japanese football player who plays for Renofa Yamaguchi FC. His father Isao Yamase participated in the 1984 Winter Olympics as a biathlete. His brother Yukihiro Yamase is also a footballer. Club career Yamase was born in Sapporo on 22 Sep ...

. Before the

FIFA 2010 World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

Jong was also the key figure in Korea DPR's

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oc ...

campaign, as they qualified for the World Cup South Africa 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 Korea DPR's first group stage match at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, against Brazil. In that match he assisted

Ji Yun-nam Ji Yun-Nam (; born 20 November 1976) is a North Korean former professional footballer who played for April 25 in the DPR Korea League. International career Ji has appeared for the Korea DPR national football team in eight FIFA World Cup qua ...

's goal in a 2–1 defeat. Although

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

d "the People's Rooney" by the English press, he likened his style of play to

Didier Drogba Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He is the Top international association football goal scorers by cou ...

Career statistics

Club

Nippon Sports Kikaku Publishing inc./日本スポーツ企画出版社
2017 J1&J2&J3選手名鑑 (NSK MOOK)
8 February 2017, Japan, (p. 137 out of 289).

International

:''Scores and results list North Korea's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Jong goal.''

References

External links

* * * *
Jong Tae-Se's blog
* *, from Journeyman Pictures, 19 July 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jong, Tae-se 1984 births Living people North Korean men's footballers North Korea men's international footballers North Korean expatriate men's footballers South Korean men's footballers Kawasaki Frontale players VfL Bochum players 1. FC Köln players Suwon Samsung Bluewings players Shimizu S-Pulse players Albirex Niigata players FC Machida Zelvia players J1 League players J2 League players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players K League 1 players South Korean expatriate men's footballers South Korean people of North Korean origin Expatriate men's footballers in Germany North Korean expatriate sportspeople in Germany South Korean expatriate sportspeople in Germany 2010 FIFA World Cup players 2011 AFC Asian Cup players Sportspeople from Nagoya Zainichi Korean men's footballers Naturalized citizens of North Korea People's Athletes Men's association football forwards Association football people from Aichi Prefecture Members of Chongryon 21st-century South Korean sportsmen