Arsenal signing Ju Young Park admits he had to defy his Mum back in South Korea to realise his dream to be a footballer.

Ju becomes the first South Korean to pull on a Gunners shirt. But it could have all been different if his mother had her way…

"I began kicking a ball when I was really little with my friends in my home town of Daegu - but when I got to about 10 or 11 I would keep it secret," he told the Official Arsenal Magazine.

"My mother was really against it and wanted me to study, so I'd play on the sly. Time passed, she watched me a few times and after a while she relented on her insistence that I shouldn't play anymore."