Qatar dominates awards at Asian Cup 2023; Hoang Anh Gia Lai spends 'tons' of money to bring in 4 stars

Liverpool begin search for replacement for coach Jurgen Klopp

Manager Jurgen Klopp made a shock announcement last month that he would leave Liverpool at the end of the season because he felt "out of energy".

According to FootMercato, Liverpool have now had initial negotiations with Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso to replace Jurgen Klopp after the German strategist announced his departure at the end of the season.

However, The Kop and Xabi Alonso have yet to reach any agreement and the two sides are continuing the negotiation process.

Regarding this issue, former MU midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger provided more information: “I know Xabi Alonso and I believe that one day leading Liverpool is his dream. I absolutely think that he has the ability to move to Anfield this summer.”

Bastian Schweinsteiger added that he wants Xabi to stay in the Bundesliga longer, because Leverkusen's good performance makes the title race more exciting.

“If Leverkusen hadn’t played so well, Bayern Munich would have been far ahead of the rest of the league. It would have been a different situation, but because Xabi Alonso’s team is so strong, there is a title race in the Bundesliga,” Bastian Schweinsteiger said.

Bayer Leverkusen, led by coach Xabi Alonso, are leading the Bundesliga with 20 rounds of unbeaten matches, leaving Bayern Munich, despite having goal machine Harry Kane, still behind.

Coach Klinmann returned to the US, not attending the summary meeting with the Korean Football Association?

South Korean media reported that coach Jurgen Klinsmann returned to the US on February 10, just two days after he and the national team returned from the 2023 Asian Cup campaign. Previously, the German coach confirmed that he would leave South Korea next week.

"As head coach, if at the end of the tournament the team does not achieve the set goals, we have to analyze and take responsibility. We need to analyze in more detail, look back more on the matches," coach Klinsmann said after the loss to Jordan.

"After the Lunar New Year holiday, we will review the overall performance of the national team and the recent tournament. First, coach Klinsmann will hold a meeting with association officials. That is the plan," said an official from the Korea Football Association (KFA).

Reporter Shin In-seop wrote: "I don't understand how they moved forward without re-evaluating everything. Coach Klinsmann was confident of winning the Asian Cup when he was appointed head coach. Therefore, if they failed, they had to review the reasons, what was lacking, and come up with a new plan. However, coach Klinsmann skipped all the procedures to return to the US."

Coach Klinsmann took the job in Korea in March 2023 to replace his predecessor Paulo Bento. This coach has 2.5 years left on his contract with the Korea Football Association (KFA). If the KFA fires him, the compensation could be up to 4.5 million USD (110 billion VND).

Hoang Anh Gia Lai spent a lot of money to get 4 stars from the team that negotiated contracts with coach Park?

Hoang Anh Gia Lai experienced a series of forgettable matches in the early stages of the 2023/2024 season when they only won 5 points after 8 matches and ranked last in the V.League.

Not only that, the mountain town football team also let coach Kiatisak transfer to work at the Hanoi Police Club.

To improve the situation, Hoang Anh Gia Lai's Board of Directors has planned to bring in more quality players in phase 2 of V.League 2023/2024.

Accordingly, some sources revealed that Mr. Thuy is preparing to spend a large amount of money to bring 4 players, including: Patrik Le Giang, Nguyen Minh Tung, Sam Ngoc Duc and Bui Ngoc Long from Ho Chi Minh City to Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

Among them, Patrik Le Giang and Sam Ngoc Duc are currently players of Hanoi Police playing for Ho Chi Minh City Club on loan.

Nguyen Minh Tung and Bui Ngoc Long also only have contracts until the end of this season with the Thong Nhat Stadium team.

Another notable point is that all four players mentioned above are pillars of Ho Chi Minh City this season.

Qatar dominates awards at Asian Cup 2023

Qatar team won all the awards after winning the 2023 Asian Cup.

In addition to winning the 2023 Asian Cup, the Qatar team won three more individual awards. Midfielder Akram Afif won the title of Best Player of the tournament thanks to his impressive performance.

The Al Sadd striker scored 8 goals, assisted 3 times and won the title of top scorer of the tournament. Before the final, Akram Afif had 5 goals but successfully executed 3 penalties later helped him surpass Aymen Hussein (6 goals). Afif is also the only player to score a hat-trick at the 2023 Asian Cup.

Meshaal Barsham won the title of Best Goalkeeper of Asian Cup 2023. He kept a clean sheet in 3 out of 7 matches, conceding 4 goals.

The Fair-play award went to Captain Hassan Al Haidos. The player born in 1990 was praised after he gave his oath-taking speech to Musab Al Battat - captain of the Palestine team.

In addition to the awards given by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Qatar team set many more milestones. They became the 4th team in history to successfully defend the championship. Before that were the Iran, Saudi Arabia and Japan teams. For the first time in history, a team in the Asian Cup final scored 3 goals all from the penalty spot./.