It’s been a tense and blood-curdling week for Lee Im-sang, the technical director of the Korea Football Association.
The KFA held a press conference at the Jongno Football Hall in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Monday to explain the process of selecting the head coach of the South Korean national soccer team.
Lee was delegated full authority to continue the process of selecting a head coach after Jeong Hae-sung, the chairman of the National Strength and Conditioning Committee, suddenly announced his intention to resign on March 28.
Lee traveled to Europe on the 2nd of this month for face-to-face interviews with the two foreign managers on the shortlist, David Wagner and Gus Poyet.
Lee met with the first foreign director candidate at a hotel in Madrid, Spain, at 9 a.m. local time for about three hours.
He then traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, where he met with the second director candidate for about three hours on the morning of the 4th.
Immediately after the interview, he flew back to Korea.
Upon returning home, Lee saw the two foreign coaches’ philosophy of soccer as incompatible with Korean soccer, which is all about building up and creating opportunities.
In effect, “there was no income.
In the end, 142 days after Jürgen Klinsmann was sacked on Feb. 15, Lee and the KFA turned around and pulled out the Hong Myung-bo card.
The final two days of the federation’s final days were tense.
At 11 p.m. on May 5, Lee went to Hong’s residence as he was returning home from a K League match against Suwon FC.
He pleaded with him that he was the right man for the job, given his game model that fit the Korean soccer philosophy, his ability to create chances through buildup, and the continuity and linkage from the age group to the A team.
Nine hours later, at 9 a.m. on the morning of June 6, Hong received a phone call from Hong accepting the head coach’s offer, finalizing the selection process.
The process from interviewing the two foreign candidates for two days to convincing Hong Myung-bo was conducted entirely by Lee Im-sang.
He was concerned that the selection process would be leaked to the outside world through the media.
Throughout the selection process, a younger member of the board was suspected of sharing near real-time information with certain media outlets.
In the end, instead of calling an all-hands meeting, Lee contacted them individually to get their consent to “delegate the final decision” and put Hong Myung-bo at the helm, capping off a breathless and blood-curdling week.
Lee’s voice trembled and his eyes were red during the press conference, as if he had been deeply troubled by the decision. 온라인카지노사이트