Park Hang-seo, Hwang Sun-hong are top KFA interim manager picks: Reports

Home > Sports > Football

Park Hang-seo, Hwang Sun-hong are top KFA interim manager picks: Reports

Published: 26 Feb. 2024, 16:38 Updated: 26 Feb. 2024, 16:49

PAIK JI-HWAN
[email protected]

Park Hang-seo at a launching ceremony of Park Hang Seo International Football Academy held at Press Club in Hanoi, Vietnam on Aug. 30, 2023. [DJ SPORTSGROUP]

Former Vietnamese national team manager Park Hang-seo and U-23 Korean national team manager Hwang Sun-hong are reportedly top candidates for the Korean national team interim manager post.

The report comes after the KFA National Team Committee reversed its decision to appoint a permanent manager ahead of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, which restart in March.

U-23 manager Hwang Sun-hong watches the Hangzhou Asian Games final between Korea and Japan at HSC Stadium in Hangzhou, China on Oct. 7, 2023. [YONHAP]

The Korean national team manager position has been vacant since the KFA sacked Jurgen Klinsmann on Feb. 16 after a year at the helm shadowed by criticism for a perceived lack of tactical awareness and his failure to win the AFC Asian Cup, where Korea exited with a semifinal loss to Jordan.

The JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, reported Monday that the National Team Committee initially wanted to appoint a permanent manager after its first meeting on Feb. 21, but it decided in a second meeting on Saturday to instead appoint an interim manager before the FIFA international break in June.

The reversal came after Korean football fans held a protest against the KFA on Friday, slamming the committee for toying with a rash appointment that could potentially interfere with the domestic K League season, days away from kickoff on March 1.

Ulsan HD boss Hong Myung-bo and FC Seoul manager Kim Gi-dong were rumored top choices for the permanent national team manager post, and lifting either one of them out of their current teams could disrupt the K League, according to fans.

Ulsan HD's official fan club protests in front of the Korea Football Association headquarters in central Seoul on Friday with a display board on a truck that says, ″Manager Hong Myung-bo is not a savior only when needed, nor is he a public property.″ [YONHAP]

Ulsan’s official fan club posted a statement to Instagram on Friday, saying that it would do everything it could to stop the KFA from appointing a K League manager for the permanent national team manager role. It added that the KFA should exclude the K League from its search process.

Other K League fans echoed that statement in the comments, saying that they supported the fan club’s position and continued demand that KFA Chairman Chung Mong-gyu, who was accused of abuse of power by a Korean nonprofit earlier this month for unilaterally hiring Klinsmann, step down.

For Ulsan, Hong's absence could be fatal, as his impact has been clear over the past three seasons. He led the club to their first-ever title defense in 2023 after winning the league title in 2022, breaking a three-year runners-up spell. Ulsan also have a busier schedule than most other K League sides, as the team is set to play in the 2023-24 AFC Champions League quarterfinals next month, which overlap with the K League season.

FC Seoul manager Kim was also reportedly on the KFA’s radar, but Kim took the helm of the capital side in December last year and has yet to manage the team through its first game.

Former Vietnamese national team manager Park could be a more suitable option for the interim manager spot, as he is not coaching any team at the moment. He has not taken a managerial role since he resigned from the Vietnamese national team last year.

During his five years at the helm of Vietnam's senior and U-23 national teams, he won two South Asian Games with the U-23 team and elevated Vietnamese football to a significantly higher level, bringing up the country’s FIFA ranking from around 130 to the low 90s.

Park, however, said after his resignation that he did not plan to take a managerial role in Korea.

Korean U-23 team manager Hwang has also seen recent success on the international stage, winning a gold medal with the U-23 squad at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.

The national team schedule could, however, interfere with Hwang's ongoing preparations for the AFC U-23 Asian Cup in April, where the U-23 squad has to finish in third to qualify for the Paris Olympics in July.

The KFA will hold another meeting on Tuesday to discuss the interim manager post.

If the KFA appoints an interim manager, they will likely oversee at least two World Cup qualifiers against Thailand next month. The senior team plays two remaining qualifiers in June.

Korea is leading in Group C of the second round of the World Cup qualifiers in which teams play in a home-and-away format, with group winners and runners-up reaching the third round.

The senior team plays Thailand at home on March 21, before the away match on March 26.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]