Jesse Marsch, Senol Gunes on KFA shortlist for national team manager: Report

Football

Published: 01 May. 2024, 11:11 Updated: 01 May. 2024, 18:01

Jesse Marsch, Senol Gunes on KFA shortlist for national team manager: Report

Then-Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch waits for the Premier League match against Nottingham Forest at City Ground stadium in Nottingham, England on Feb. 5, 2023. [AP/YONHAP]

Former Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch and ex-FC Seoul manager Senol Gunes have reportedly been shortlisted by the Korea Football Association in the search for a new national team manager.

Korean broadcaster JTBC, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, reported Tuesday that the KFA National Team Committee narrowed down its list of national team manager candidates to six, which include Marsch and Gunes.

Marsch, 50, started his coaching career in his home country, the United States, in 2010 when he worked for a year as an assistant coach for the U.S. national team.

He went on to take the helm of multiple European teams afterward, serving as a manager for Red Bull Salzburg, RB Leipzig and most recently Leeds in the 2022-23 Premier League season.

He has not taken any managerial role since he was sacked by Leeds in February 2023 for a poor run. The club sat in 17th place on the 20-team table at the time of Marsch's dismissal and faced relegation at the end of the season.

Marsch had seen success with Salzburg from 2019 to 2021, winning the Austrian Bundesliga and Austrian Cup two straight times in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.

He also coached Korean national team regular midfielder pick Hwang Hee-chan during the 2019-20 campaign before Hwang joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2021.

Gunes, 72, is a more veteran manager with nearly 25 years of coaching experience. The Turkish manager coached multiple Turkish clubs like Trabzonspor and Besiktas, along with the Turkish national team.

Then-Besiktas manager Senol Gunes waits for the Europa Conference League match against FC Lugano at Vodafone Park in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 5, 2023. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

He won the Turkish Cup twice with Trabzonspor and claimed the Super Lig twice with Besiktas.

During his four-year spell — from 2000 to 2004 — with the Turkish national team, he managed a third-place finish in the 2002 World Cup where Turkey beat Korea 3-2 in the third-place match.

Gunes also has coaching experience in Korea, as he led FC Seoul from 2007 to 2009 during which he managed a K League runner-up finish in 2008.

The reports about the possible appointment come after the KFA said in February that it would hire a permanent manager in May.

The national team permanent manager position has been vacant since the KFA sacked Jurgen Klinsmann in February after a turbulent one-year spell. Klinsmann faced criticism for a perceived lack of tactical awareness and for failing to win the AFC Asian Cup, where Korea exited with a semifinal loss to Jordan despite fielding a star-studded squad that included Europe-based players like Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur, Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain and Kim Min-jae of Bayern Munich.

The KFA did not immediately hire a new permanent manager but instead appointed U-23 team manager Hwang Sun-hong on Feb. 27 as interim manager to take charge of two 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Thailand in March.

Once a new manager takes the helm in May, he will immediately have work to do, as the national team is set to be back in action for 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June.

Korea will play Singapore on June 6 and China on June 11 in the second round of qualifiers, where the top two teams reach the third round. The winners and runners-up of each group also qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup.

Korea is leading in Group C with 10 points, with China coming in second, at seven.

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