Park Joo-ho

Career in Japan

Park started his professional career by joining J2 League club Mito HollyHock in 2008 after recovering from his back injury. He advanced to the top division after his debut season, and won the 2009 J1 League and the 2010 J.League Cup with Kashima Antlers and Júbilo Iwata respectively.

Basel

On 25 June 2011, Swiss Super League club Basel announced that Park had signed a four-year contract with them. He joined Basel's first team for their 2011–12 season under head coach Thorsten Fink. To the beginning of their 2011–12 season Park was a member of the Basel team that won the 2011 Uhrencup, beating both Hertha Berlin 3–0 and West Ham United 2–1 to lead the table on goal difference above Young Boys. After playing in six test games, Park played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the Swissporarena on 20 August 2011 as Basel were defeated 3–1 by Luzern. Park soon established himself as Basel's first-choice left-back. Basel entered the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League in the group stage. On 7 December 2011, during the Champions League group C match at home in the St. Jakob-Park he helped Basel defeat Manchester United to make his team become the first Swiss club to advance to the knockout stage of a Champions League. Basel won the match 2–1, sending United out of the Champions league. He also contributed to the team's 1–0 first-leg victory over Bayern Munich in the round of 16 by stopping Arjen Robben successfully. However, the…

Park captained South Korean under-20 team in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. On 18 January 2010, Park made his first international cap for South Korea in a friendly against Finland. On 28 May 2014, Park was selected for the South Korean squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup to replace injured player Kim Jin-su. However, he didn't play any matches while South Korea finished at the bottom of their group. Park was one of the three over-aged players in South Korea's squad for the 2014 Asian Games, and played in a defensive midfield position as Kim Jin-su preferred playing as a left back. He scored in the round of 16 match against Hong Kong. He played all matches as starter, and became a gold medalist. His gold medal allowed him to be exempted from the two-year mandatory military service and continue his career in the Bundesliga. Park also played as a defensive midfielder and Ki Sung-yueng's partner in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, helping South Korea advance to the Asian Cup final for the first time in 27 years. Park was going to participate as a main player in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. However, he sustained a thigh injury during the first match against Sweden and was ruled out for the rest of the tournament. On 16 October 2018, Park scored his first senior international goal against Panama.

Shortly after the Korea Pro-Footballers' Association (KPFA) was registered as a member organization of FIFPro, Park was voted into the inaugural board and served as vice-president until his retirement. In February 2024, the Korea Football Association (KFA) announced his appointment as a member of the selection committee in the search for a new men's national team manager. In July, he was threatened with legal action by the KFA over a video he had uploaded on his YouTube channel. He had been filming with fellow commentator Kim Hwan to discuss the KFA's lack of progress in selecting a new national team manager over the past five months and had reacted with surprise regarding the real-time news of Hong Myung-bo's appointment as the new manager. After that, he explained his reaction and further reiterated the fact he had no knowledge of the appointment despite being part of the committee responsible for the selection of coaches and his frustration with the disorganized nature of the selection process. The reaction was not edited out and the full video was uploaded, garnering several million views. The KFA eventually backed down when football fans (already furious at appointment of Hong, who was managing K League 1 club Ulsan HD) and sports journalists criticized the organization. Park refused to retract his claims of cronyism and disorganized leadership. Both retired and active players took to social media to declare their support for him while other veterans, including several…

Born in Yongin and raised in Hanam, Park began playing football in sixth grade, relatively late compared to his peers. At that time there were no elementary schools in Hanam with a football program so he commuted to school in Seoul together with his neighbor and future national teammate Lee Yong. He attended Kwangwoon Electronics Technical High School and Soongsil University. While at university, he gained the interest of notable local and Japanese top-flight clubs but was not offered a contract after medicals revealed a back injury.