Chelsea, in common with David Beckham, have their American dream, but for Manchester United — and, indeed, their Florida-based owners — nothing matters more than fulfilling their Eastern promise.

Here in South Korea yesterday, on the second leg of their preseason tour to Asia, United stepped up their preparations for the new Barclays Premier League campaign with a convincing 4-0 victory against FC Seoul. Of greater long-term value are advances made in connecting with their host country, whether the screaming crowds who see Cristiano Ronaldo as the new Beckham, the 750,000 Koreans who have signed up for United credit cards or the companies who are queueing up for a piece of the club that purports to be the world’s biggest.

Shortly after leaving United to become Chelsea’s chief executive in 2003, Peter Kenyon talked of his ambition to “turn the world blue”. This bold plan has included tapping into the Asian market while thundering across the Atlantic in each of the past four summers in a bid to crack the potentially vast American market.

Yet mention Chelsea to all but a minority of Americans and they will think of a district of Manhattan; mention United to a Seoul native and he or she may scream. Chelsea have a South Korean sponsor, Samsung, but do not have a Wayne Rooney, a Ronaldo or, indeed, a Park Ji Sung.

United chief executive David Gill said that Park is part of the United phenomenon here, but it is not unique to South Korea. Of the 75 million United fans worldwide, 40.7 million are in Asia and only 4.6 million in “the Americas”. The Asian fans are also willing “customers”, through the traditional merchandising routes and the club’s media outlets.

Preaching to the converted it may be, but United, who last visited the United States in 2004, appear to have settled on Asia as the region to exploit under the Glazer regime — followed by Africa, with a visit to South Africa arranged for this time next year.

“Chelsea have had a great time in America the last few years, which is fine, but we do what’s right for us,” Gill said yesterday. “I would agree [that the Asian market has possibilities that will never exist in the US]. We had a good tour in America in 2003. Clearly there were a few issues in 2004, when we didn’t have a full squad there. I’m sure we will go to America again, whether that’s at the end of the season or a preseason.

“Obviously, with having American owners, it makes sense to go there at some stage. But they wouldn’t insist that we go there. They would look at it from a team perspective, a commercial perspective and an overall club perspective. Looking at all those issues, it made sense for us to come here.”

A first visit to Seoul has come at a cost for the players, whose freedom has been restricted by the hordes of fans waiting outside their hotel to glimpse Ronaldo, Rooney and, strangely, Alan Smith. But not even those three can rival Park in the pin-up stakes. The South Korea midfield player may have been on the United bench, nursing a serious knee injury, but he was still the star attraction as the 64,160 crowd — all tickets sold within six hours of going on sale — witnessed goals from Ronaldo, Chris Eagles, Rooney and Patrice Evra.

Ronaldo was unusually coy as he discussed his popularity, but Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted by what he had witnessed. “We consider ourselves a major global brand,” the United manager said. “The reception here has been excellent. I used to think when we went to Thailand it was almost impossible because we had thousands outside the hotel all night. We have experienced the same thing here. But it doesn’t surprise me. It is just one of these phenomena we can create in some parts of the world.”

Some, but not all. As for the American dream, the view at Old Trafford seems to be that Chelsea are welcome to it.