South Korean national team coach fired
(Baonghean.vn) - The Korea Football Association (KFA) has just fired head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
On February 16, the Korea Football Association (KFA) decided to fire coach Klinsmann. The reason given by the KFA was that this coach “lack of tactical preparation, poor management and lack of work ethic”.
On his personal page, Klinsmann also sent a farewell message to the players and fans. But he still emphasized that he had done everything well. The evidence the German coach gave was his unbeaten streak over the past year, including 13 matches, including a 6-0 thrashing of the Vietnamese team. But Klinsmann did not include the semi-final loss to Jordan in the list.
KFA President Chung Mong-gyu has the final say on the matter. But he has also been criticised for deciding to bring in Klinsmann after the coach had failed for nearly two decades at Bayern, Hertha Berlin…
Klinsmann will lead the South Korean team under a contract from March 2023 to July 2026. According to Dong-a, due to the early dismissal, the KFA must compensate the German coach about 7 billion won, equivalent to 5.3 million USD. In addition, the compensation cost for other members of the coaching staff is about 10 billion won.
Coach Klinsmann was tasked with helping South Korea win the 2023 Asian Cup and qualify for their 11th consecutive World Cup in 2026. However, South Korea stopped in the semi-finals of the 2023 Asian Cup after losing 0-2 to Jordan. Klinsmann was criticized for his weak tactics and ineffective substitutions, and his inability to manage his players when a fight broke out between the team's two big stars, Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in, at dinner the day before the semi-final.
Not only did he fail in the Asian Cup, coach Klinsmann also lost points for his attitude when he often worked from abroad instead of being present in Korea. The anger of Korean fans reached its peak when he smiled after the defeat against Jordan, or when answering the press at Incheon airport, Korea.
Klinsmann is the ninth foreign coach in the history of the Korean national team, since Russian coach Anatoliy Byshovets from 1994 to 1995. Before Klinsmann, former Portuguese coach Paulo Bento led the team from 2018 and parted ways after reaching the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup. The most remembered foreign coach in Korea is Guus Hiddink, who won fourth place at the 2002 World Cup.
Klinsmann was born in 1964, is a legendary German striker who scored 47 goals in 108 matches for the national team, won the 1990 World Cup, Euro 1996. His club career went through many famous places such as: Stuttgart, Inter Milan, Tottenham, Bayern Munich... with 232 goals in 514 matches.
The KFA will speed up the process of selecting a new coach as the second round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers will take place in late March 2024, where Korea will have two matches against Thailand.