By Hyung-joo Lee = A familiar face appeared on ESPN’s soccer analysis program. It was Jürgen Klinsmann, 59, the head coach of the newly minted South Korean national soccer team in February.
The Korean Football Association (KFA), riding high on the momentum of their run to the round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, searched for a coach for next January’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and the 2026 World Cup in North and Central America, and while the process was not without its bumps, Klinsmann was eventually handed the reins.
A world-class striker in his playing days, Klinsmann has had one of the best careers of any national team coach. After a strong start to his coaching career, Klinsmann was on a bit of a downward spiral, so going to South Korea was an important move for him to rebuild his tattered ego.
One of the first things Klinsmann said when he took over was that he would be “based in Korea” and lead the national team, just like his predecessor, Paulo Bento. This is good for continuity on a day-to-day basis, and it will keep the majority of K-Leaguers, with the exception of a few expats, motivated. It’s easier to see the league from the ground and evaluate the players who play in it when you’re based in Korea.
However, this promise has not been fulfilled. Since his appointment, Klinsmann has spent only about 70 days in Korea and more than 90 days abroad. Of course, he gave unspecified reasons such as personal schedule, remote work, Asian Cup draw, and European inspection, but it raised suspicions.
There is also a reasonable argument that the evaluation of K-Leaguers is mainly based on the evaluation of the coaching staff such as Chaduri Advisors. It’s a ridiculous situation where a player has to be well-liked by people other than the national team coach in order to make the national team. Even if they are selected, it’s not clear that they will be used by the head coach or that they will be able to make good use of them.
It was the aforementioned ESPN appearance that sparked the outrage of soccer fans.
Klinsmann appeared on the program to comment on the English Premier League (EP) Tottenham Hotspur-Brentford FC match, the German Bundesliga FC Bayern Munich-RB Leipzig match, and the US Major League Soccer (MLS) Philadelphia Union-Inter Miami match.
While he may have had good intentions in the United States, where he was visiting for personal reasons, his commentary on other teams shows a lack of respect.
Of course, the two Tottenham and Bayern Munich games are understandable in the grand scheme of things. Klinsmann is a Tottenham and Munich legend, and they have two of the best players in the world in Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae.
However, watching and evaluating a game against Inter Miami, where Lionel Messi is now playing, is a bit more difficult. If you’re doing a good job of evaluating the K-Leaguers, it’s easy to get sidetracked when you don’t follow the basics.
Klinsmann praised Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi and said, “I can’t wait to see his next game. I’ll keep an eye on him,” which is an incomprehensible statement.
In the midst of this farce, the national team is not performing well. Klinsmann’s team has a dismal record of two draws against Colombia (2-2) and Uruguay (1-2) in March, and two losses against Peru (0-1) and El Salvador (1-1) in June.
Even if we can excuse the early results as a team in the process of building, the team is not improving. Klinsmann himself admitted that the team performed worse in the June A-Match, when his tenure began in earnest, than they did in the March A-Match, when they played to the template laid down by his predecessor, Bento.
As public opinion deteriorated, the KFA organized a video press conference for Klinsmann, which was attended by only a handful of media outlets. Basically, it’s ridiculous that the head coach of the South Korean national team would hold a press conference via video from the United States, and it’s even worse that it was for personal reasons, not public ones.카지노사이트
Tottenham captain Son Heung-min, Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-jae, and Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in are among the players playing for top European clubs. This is a crucial time for the team to perform at the Asian Cup and World Cup. It is deeply concerning that the coach who is leading the team at this time seems to be showing a lack of sincerity and respect.