Former football player Pak Tu Ik is the first People’s Athlete in the DPRK.

Born to a poor peasant family before Korea’s liberation, he had loved football since his childhood.

Just after the Fatherland Liberation War, he led a working life and then was active at a factory football team.

He was selected by the Pyongyang Sports Club as he flaunted his unusual skills at sports games and cut a brilliant figure on the domestic front.

Possessed of an outstanding ball control ability, correct passing and strong shot, he was awarded the title of sports master in 1959 for giving full rein to his technique in the matches.

At the eighth World Cup finals, which was held in Britain in July 1966, he scored a decisive goal as a centre forward in the match with Italians, a World Cup winner, leaving a deep impression on the world’s football fans by creating a football myth of Chollima Korea.

Acting as a football player of the national team, he scored more than 80 goals in some 130 international matches.

While working as the coach of the April 25 football club after serving as football head coach at the Amnokgang Sports Club, he won successive victories at away games in Japan.

As he worked as head coach of the national team, he led his team to win the 13th universiad and the 1986 and 1987 Thai King Cup international soccer tournaments.

He is still healthy despite his advancing years of over 80. Dozens of years have passed, but he is now widely remembered by the Korean people as the master of football, who created the football myth of Chollima Korea.