Agent: Ahn Won’t Go to Perugia
Ahn Jung-Hwan will not go back to Italian league club Perugia, which had threatened to fire the South Korean forward for scoring the extra-time golden goal that eliminated Italy from the World Cup, his agent said Wednesday.
Ahn’s rebuttal came after the Italian club reversed its position and said it exercised the option to buy Ahn’s contract from South Korean K-League club, Busan I.cons.
“Ahn has flatly denied Perugia’s offer to fully join them,” Ahn’s management group, ePlayers, said in a statement. “He said he will no longer discuss his transfer to Perugia, which attacked his character instead of congratulating him for his goal in the World Cup.”
Reached by telephone in Italy, Perugia spokesman Paolo Giovagnoni said the club had not heard from Ahn.
“We don’t believe this news,” he said. “There is a contract signed by three parties--Perugia, Busan, and Ahn--that takes effect June 30, 2002. We’ll wait to hear directly from Ahn, who I hope is now enjoying some vacation.”
Ahn has been with Perugia since the start of the 2000-2001 season, spending most of his time on the bench.
His header in overtime lifted South Korea to a stunning 2-1 victory over Italy in the round of 16.
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Pierluigi Collina, the Italian referee known for his bald head almost as much as his consistent officiating, will be chosen to oversee the World Cup final, an Italian sports newspaper reported.
While FIFA will not make its official selection until today, La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote that “there are no more doubts” as to which referee the organization that oversees international soccer will choose.”
Collina--who speaks Italian, Spanish, French and English--has been mentioned in connection with Sunday’s final between Germany and Brazil since early April, when FIFA Secretary General Michel Zen-Ruffinen, a former referee, said he would be the ideal candidate for the match.
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Glasgow Rangers striker Claudio Caniggia has been given a $1,000 fine and a two-match ban for his World Cup red card, according to the club’s Web site.
The ban means the 35-year-old Caniggia, who missed Argentina’s first two Group F games because of injury, will miss the first two games of Argentina’s Copa America campaign, should he continue his international career.
