Is Jürgen Klinsmann, 59, truly committed to the South Korean national soccer team?
After facing criticism for not living in South Korea and focusing on side projects instead of his main job, Klinsmann has been working remotely from abroad and has been active on international media panels.
He has been interviewed by overseas media to evaluate Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s decision to sign Wataru Endo (Japan), and last week, he predicted the outcome of the 2023-24 English Premier League (EPL) Tottenham-Manchester United match for ESPN, which contacted him from home.
He got it right, but the reaction from Korean soccer fans was muted. The general consensus is that his work as a soccer panelist for overseas media is noticeably higher than his role as head coach of the South Korean national soccer team. 카지노사이트
“I wonder if the concerns I had before his appointment about his stay in Korea will be realized,” said many. Klinsmann, who was tipped to win the Asian Cup, hasn’t won a point in four games since taking over. In this situation, it is unreasonable to expect a deep and broad understanding from the fans.
Klinsmann, who is aware that public opinion is not in his favor, has offered the following explanation.
“It’s an exaggeration to say that I don’t live in Korea,” Klinsmann said in a recent interview with Korean reporters. “The way I observe players is different from 20-30 years ago. You can see them on the field, but you can also keep in touch with them to see how they are doing. Our project has the Asian Cup on the horizon and the World Cup in three years.”
Since then, Klinsmann has been a regular on international media ‘panels’.
On ESPN’s YouTube channel, Klinsmann reviewed the Tottenham-Manchester United match in the second round of the 2023-24 English Premier League (EPL) and analyzed Lionel Messi and Harry Kane.
Of course, it’s great that the head coach of the Korean national team is in a position to observe the global soccer scene and that he’s being sought out by leading media outlets and organizations. The problem is that Klinsmann was not in Korea when he was supposed to be, as he had other commitments abroad that the KFA had guaranteed him in his contract.
Klinsmann returned to Korea on July 24 after his vacation and left a week later on August 1, and has been working remotely from the United States ever since. With the exception of March and June, when he was away for A matches, Klinsmann has spent most of his time in the U.S. with his family.
As a result, I’ve been to less than 20 K League games to observe players in person. The difference between having the head of the national team on the field and not is enormous. This is in stark contrast to Paulo Bento, who often traveled to K League games with his team.
As a national team manager, you need to constantly discover new players to thicken your roster and grow your team’s strength. That’s why watching K League players is so important. It’s essential to improve your ability to identify and select players like Liverpool’s Klopp, who Klinsmann praised.
It’s hard to succeed if you don’t have a good grasp of a player’s abilities and tendencies. It’s no surprise that Klinsmann, who follows international soccer, knows that a coach’s understanding of his squad has a huge impact on performance.
Even if you want to give Klinsmann the benefit of the doubt, it’s hard not to wonder if he’s committed to the South Korean national soccer team given his recent behavior. The fact that the national team manager’s presence in the country is the center of the news is itself a problem.
Klopp’s views on Messi and the American league are not the kind of things a national team manager who hasn’t won in four games should be talking about, and that’s outside of Korea, at home in the United States.