[VIDEO] Football legends, FIFA president send messages of support ahead of Seoul Homeless World Cup

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[VIDEO] Football legends, FIFA president send messages of support ahead of Seoul Homeless World Cup

Published: 21 Sep. 2024, 11:11 Updated: 21 Sep. 2024, 11:12

JIM BULLEY
jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr

Korean football legend Cha Bum-kun speaks in a message played before the start of the Homeless World Cup in Seoul on Friday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korean football legend Cha Bum-kun, better known internationally as Tscha Bum, was among a number of former footballers to speak at the draw for the 2024 Homeless World Cup in Seoul, alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Cha and Infantino sent congratulatory messages to be played at the draw at Hanyang University in eastern Seoul. Messages from former English footballer Fara Williams and former Colombian footballer Mario Yepes.

The 2024 Homeless World Cup kicks off at Hanyang University in eastern Seoul on Saturday with around 450 footballers from 42 countries competing at the annual football tournament.

This year marks the first time that the Homeless World Cup has taken place in Korea, the first Asian country to host the annual tournament that was started in 2003 by the Homeless World Cup Foundation that aims to “shape attitudes toward the global issue of homelessness, using the universal language of football.”

The tournament is free for spectators.

Cha played in the Bundesliga from 1978 through 1989. He spent time with Darmstadt 98, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen, and he twice won the UEFA Cup — now called the UEFA Europa League — in 1980 and 1988. He first won the title with Frankfurt in 1980 and claimed his second in 1988 with Leverkusen.

A remarkable Bundesliga career earned Cha multiple awards, including a place in the Asia Men's Team of the 20th Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.

Below are the videos from Cha, Infantino, Williams and Yepes.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]