SEOUL: Former coach and captain Hong Myung-bo will return to guide South Korea’s national men’s football team, the governing body said on Sunday, five months after the dismissal of Jurgen Klinsmann.

“We have signed Hong as our next national team head coach,” a spokesman for the Korea Football Association (KFA) told AFP, declining to give any details of Hong’s contract.

Klinsmann, a World Cup winner as a player in 1990, was dismissed after South Korea’s disappointing semi-final exit from the Asian Cup in February.

Hong returns as South Korea coach 10 years after stepping down in the wake of the team’s group-stage exit from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Hong led South Korea for 19 games between 2013 and 2014, finishing after their group stage exit at the 2014 World Cup. He arrives back with the national team having led Ulsan HD to back-to-back K League 1 titles in the past two seasons.

As a defender, he captained the South to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup, which South Korea co-hosted with Japan, and scored the decisive penalty in a quarters shootout against Spain.

Klinsmann was dismissed after only a year in the job following a 2-0 Asian Cup defeat by Jordan.

South Korea, led by Son Heung-Min, played the past four World Cup qualifier matches under two interim coaches. Hong will guide the national squad through the final stages of qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2024