Korea appoints new coaches to revamp struggling national volleyball teams

Volleyball

Published: 19 Mar. 2024, 11:30 Updated: 19 Mar. 2024, 18:03

Korea appoints new coaches to revamp struggling national volleyball teams

Isanaye Ramirez [KOREA VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION]

Isanaye Ramirez of Brazil will take the helm of the Korean men’s volleyball team and Fernando Morales of Puerto Rico will take charge of the Korean women’s team, the Korea Volleyball Association (KVA) announced Monday.

Ramirez, 40, served as the Pakistani men’s national team head coach from June 2023 through this year, during which he competed at the Hangzhou Asian Games where he led his side to a 3-0 win over Korea and managed a sixth-place finish.

He also served as head coach of the Bahraini men’s national team and Emirati team Shabab Alahli prior to taking the helm of the Pakistani national team.

The appointment of Ramirez comes after the KVA sacked former men’s team head coach Im Do-hun in October last year, following the team’s seventh-place finish at the Asiad, which marked the first time the team had failed to win an Asiad medal in 61 years.

Im first took the helm of the national team in 2019, but his efforts during his four-year spell did not pay off on the international stage. His side failed to reach the semifinals at the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship in August last year, before the unimpressive run at the Asiad.

Ramirez will have some revamping work to do for the Korean men’s team, who have failed to qualify for the Olympics since 2000.

The Korean men’s team will also likely miss the 2024 Paris Olympics, as the five remaining berths will be given to countries based on FIVB world rankings in June, prioritizing those from the continents without a qualified team in the Games.

No African country has qualified for the Olympics yet this year, but No. 18 Egypt and No. 25 Tunisia sit above No. 28 Korea as of Tuesday. Iran sits at No. 15 and Qatar at No. 21.

New women’s national team head coach Morales, 42, will also have some work to do to bring back the glory days of the team with nearly a decade of coaching experience — mostly notably a four-year stint with the Puerto Rican women’s national team from 2020 to 2024.

Fernando Morales [KOREA VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION]

Korea has struggled since reaching the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Head Coach Cesar Hernandez, appointed after the Games, was also fired in October last year.

The team lost all 12 Volleyball Nations League games in 2022 and repeated the same result in the annual competition last year, before losing all seven Paris Olympics qualifiers and finishing in fifth place at the Asiad later in the year.

The team’s FIVB ranking also plummeted due to the struggle, going from 14th in 2021 to 40th as of Tuesday.

The women’s team will also likely miss the Paris Olympics, as the remaining five tickets will be given through the world ranking qualification pathway like in the men’s.

Morales can solely focus on the women’s team, unlike former head coach Hernandez who served as both national team head coach and Turkish team VakifBank SK assistant coach.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]