An Yong Hak was born and raised in Japan but he will be cheering for North Korea — his former team — when the two sides clash in a World Cup qualifier in Tokyo on Thursday.
An is one of roughly 300,000 ethnic Koreans living in Japan, a group that has long suffered discrimination in areas such as employment and social welfare.
He attended a pro-Pyongyang school in Japan and played 40 times in midfield for North Korea, facing Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Yaya Toure at the 2010 World Cup.