“The goal is to win the Asian Cup.”
This is the resolution expressed by the new coach of the Korean national soccer team, Jürgen Klinsmann (60, Germany), who arrived in Korea.
Klinsman took a flight from Los Angeles, USA, and arrived at Incheon International Airport at around 4:56 am on the 8th. Members of the Korea Football Association, including Michael Müller (Germany), head of the National Team Strengthening Committee, welcomed the players by handing over bouquets and red mufflers with the association emblem engraved with ‘KOREA’.
In a standing interview, Klinsman said in English, “I am grateful that you all welcomed me at such an early hour. He is proud and honored to be in this position with the opportunity to be the head coach of the Korean National Team. We will continue to make preparations so that we can continue to succeed here. We will do our best so that Korea can continue the good results it achieved at the World Cup in Qatar.”
Earlier, on the 27th of last month, the Korea Football Association appointed Klinsman as the successor to coach Paulo Bento. Regarding the background of his decision to go to Korea, Klinsman said, “I have visited Korea several times. He visited the 1998 Seoul Olympics and the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. He also remembers visiting during the Under-20 World Cup, where his son participated (2017),” he said. “I have a good experience with Korea and Koreans. When the opportunity for the Korean national team came, I was quite happy. Korea is a good team, and Korea is a good country and has good people, so I look forward to it. I am also looking forward to learning from Koreans, and I am looking forward to cutting out the team as well.”
Klinsman signed a three-year and five-month contract with the Korea Football Association until the 2026 World Cup finals in North and Central America. Before that, there is the Qatar Asian Cup next January. It is a tournament that Korea has not won for 63 years since 1960. When asked about his goals for the Asian Cup and World Cup, Klinsman said, “While leading the TSG (International Football Federation Technical Research Group) at the Qatar World Cup, I looked at all the matches in Korea, including one of my coaches, Du-Ri Cha. Korean football has built a good team for 20-25 years, starting with coach Guus Hiddink, coach Uli Stielike, and former coach Bento. That’s why I think I can say that the Asian Cup is my goal.” He then laughed, saying, “Korea beat a big team at the Qatar World Cup, for example, Portugal or even Germany before.” Korea defeated Klinsmann’s home country Germany 2-0 in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Klinsman referred to Cha Doo-ri, who is known to have played a role as a link to Korea, as one of the ‘coaches’ as a member of FIFA TSG during the Qatar World Cup. There is also a prospect that Cha Doo-ri will concurrently serve as the head of FC Seoul’s Youth Enhancement Office and the Korean national team’s advisor to assist Cleansman.
It wasn’t a huge crowd, but Korean soccer fans came out early in the morning and greeted Cleansman. There was a fan who held up the old uniform of the German national soccer team, asked for an autograph, and prepared a caricature. Moving to a hotel in Seoul, Klinsman will hold an inaugural press conference at the Paju National Soccer Team Training Center NFC on the 9th. On the 12th, he visits the Seoul World Cup Stadium, where the professional soccer K League 1 Seoul and Ulsan Hyundai matches are held. On the 24th, he will make his debut in Ulsan in an evaluation match against Colombia, and on the 28th he will face Uruguay in Seoul.
The gaze toward Cleansman is half of expectation and half of concern. During his time as a player, he was called the ‘blonde bomber’ and scored two goals with a left-footed turning shot in the 1994 World Cup group stage match against Korea. He led the German national team to third place in the 2006 World Cup and led the United States national team to the round of 16 in the 2014 World Cup. 온라인카지노
However, when he was a German manager, he wanted to stay in America where his family was, so there was a ‘work from home’ controversy. Philipp Lahm, who was a player while coaching Bayern Munich in Germany, said in his autobiography, “Under the guidance of Klinsmann, we only trained physically. There were almost no tactical maps.” In 2019, two months after taking the helm of Hertha Berlin, Germany, he suddenly resigned after criticizing the club on social media Facebook, and his career break lasted three years. It was also known that the Korea Football Association unilaterally notified the power reinforcement committee members just before the announcement of the appointment of Klinsman, causing controversy.