Park Tae-soo (; born 1 December 1989), also known as Karim or Karim Park, is a South Korean 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 plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He became well known when his free-kick goal against Petaling Jaya City went viral on social media.

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 ...

, the world football governing body, also shared a clip of the goal on its

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

page.

Personal life

Park was born in

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

and spent his adolescence there. He attended Anyang Middle School and Anyang Technical High School. He later attended

Hongik University Hongik University (; colloquially as Hongdae) is a private university in Mapo District, Mapo, Seoul, South Korea. It was founded in 1946. The university also maintains a branch campus in Sejong City. The university's colloquial name, "Hongdae ...

before starting his football senior career with

Incheon United Incheon United FC () is a South Korean professional football club based in Incheon that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in 2003, the club is a so-called "community club", with the government of the ...

in 2011. According to his social media account in

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, Park was married to a Korean woman in 2014 and has two children. The family currently lives in

Kota Kinabalu Kota Kinabalu (; formerly known as Jesselton), colloquially referred to as KK, is the state capital of Sabah, Malaysia. It is also the capital of the Kota Kinabalu District as well as the West Coast Division of Sabah. The city is located on the ...

Sabah, Malaysia Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalimantan province to the south. The Federal Ter ...

Club career

Park, a draftee from the 2011 K-League draft intake, was selected by

for the

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

season, and his first appearance for his new club was in a

K-League Cup The Korean League Cup was a professional football competition in South Korean football. It was held by the K League Federation from 1986 to 2012. Sponsorship Results Finals Titles by club K League's principle of official statistics is tha ...

match against

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 ...

, playing nearly the entire second half of the match. His debut in the K-League was as a late substitute in Incheon's match against

Gwangju FC Gwangju FC () is a South Korean professional football club based in Gwangju that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. They joined the K League in the 2011 season. History Gwangju FC was founded in December 2010, b ...

on 22 May 2011.

Sabah

On 29 January 2019, Park was signed by the Malaysian Premier League club

Sabah FA Sabah Football Club () is a Malaysian professional football club owned by the Sabah Football Club Sdn Bhd. The club represents the state of Sabah in Borneo, and competes in the Malaysia Super League, the top tier of Malaysian football. Thei ...

as their sole import defender player. Park scored an equaliser goal during one of the team's early matches against

Terengganu F.C. II Terengganu Football Club II () is a professional association football, football club based in Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia. The club currently plays in the under-23 Malaysia MFL Cup. The club was founded as T-Team on 14 July 2006, ch ...

before the team sealed victory with two more goals scored by his teammates. During his career with the team, he has shown excellent defensive work to withstand pressure from opponent teams that resulted in Sabah securing top place in the

2019 Malaysia Premier League The 2019 Malaysia Premier League is the 16th season of the Malaysia Premier League, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia since its establishment in 2004. Team changes A total of 12 teams contested the league, including 8 side ...

, thus qualifying for the

2020 Malaysia Super League The 2020 Malaysia Super League (), known as the CIMB Bank Liga Super Malaysia 2020 for sponsorship reasons, was the 17th season of the Malaysia Super League, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia. Johor Darul Ta'zim were the defen ...

Statistics

Honours

Sabah * Malaysia Premier League: 2019

References

External links

* * 1989 births Living people Footballers from Incheon South Korean men's footballers Chungju Hummel FC players Incheon United FC players Daejeon Hana Citizen players FC Anyang players Sabah F.C. (Malaysia) players K League 1 players K League 2 players Malaysia Super League players South Korean expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Malaysia South Korean expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Hongik University alumni Men's association football defenders 21st-century South Korean sportsmen {{SouthKorea-footy-defender-stub