Messi: A wanted man

Lionel Messi is perhaps the most popular football player in the world. His skill, flair and incredible goalscoring record have caught the imagination of millions of football-crazy children all over the world. Even in North Korea.

The Pyongyang International Football School, a fledgling facility North Korean officials hope will unearth a talent like the Barcelona great, opened in June last year. The facility caters for 200 boys and girls aged nine and above who are chasing dreams of soccer stardom.

"I want to invite him, because our children love him," says Han Un Gyong. The country's Asian Football Confederation official said students are selected from around the country after scouting and playing in trial matches.

"We have a lot of matches at weekends, we see them and choose the best. But if we see they're not developing, we send them back and choose another one."

Every one of them wants to play like one player in particular.

"I go to the school and I ask them who is very good, best player? They all say 'Messi'," Han told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the AFC's award ceremony in Manila.

"They read books about Messi. Through the Internet, they can watch all the matches at the Pyongyang International School."

Interest in football soared in North Korea after their appearance at the 2010 World Cup and Han said she would love the four times World Player of the Year to come and see the facility.

Football developing in North Korea

If Messi did accept the invite, Han is sure he would be impressed with the work North Korea were doing to develop football in North Korea. Football's biggest stars frequently make trips to fast-growing Asia, but a visit by Messi, nominated for a fifth world player of the year award, to secretive North Korea would cause a stir.

Han said it may be five years before North Korea's senior sides start reaping the benefits of the academy, but next month the men's team will compete in the Asian Cup finals in Australia. North Korea have been drawn against China, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia in Group B and have only reached the finals of the continental showpiece three times, twice getting knocked out in the group stage and achieving their best result of fourth in 1980.

North Korea's Women's team have been banned from next year's World Cup after five players failed drugs tests at the 2011 edition, a result they said came from taking traditional medicine, containing musk deer glands.

The country isn't known for its footballing history, but even before the foray in 2010 they sprang a surprise at the 1966 World Cup, where they stunned Italy to reach the quarter-finals. North Korea will also be buoyed by their feat in reaching the Asian Games final in October of this year, where they narrowly lost 1-0 to cross-border rivals South Korea - a country with whom they are technically still at war.

While sport takes on a higher profile in North Korea, its human rights record continues to be a source of controversy. Last month, a UN Assembly committee dealing with human rights passed a resolution calling for the UN Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

jh/al (Reuters, AFP)