South Korea men’s national soccer team coach Jürgen Klinsmann (59, pictured) skipped a press conference to announce the players who will accompany the team to a friendly in Europe next month. He refused to do so after holding a first-of-its-kind online press conference in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics say the KFA has lost control of 카지노사이트 Klinsmann.
The KFA announced a 25-man roster for the upcoming friendlies in Europe on Monday, with a number of new faces, including Kim Jun-hong (Gimcheon), Kim Ji-soo (Brentford), and Lee Sun-min (Gwangju FC). Klinsmann’s men will face Wales in an away friendly on Sept. 8 and Saudi Arabia in Newcastle, England, on Sept. 13. It would have been expected for Klinsmann to explain the background of the new players, tactics and strategy, and plans for the Asian Cup in Qatar next January, but Klinsmann skipped the process. He is currently working from home in the U.S. after leaving Korea for a European tour and other personal commitments, and will join the team in Europe in September.
As for why Klinsmann skipped the press conference, a source from the Korean Football Association said, “He told me that he wanted me to ask the questions on the first day of the players’ call-up because there are a lot of variables that can happen in the week between the announcement of the roster and the actual players being called up, including injuries, and if you do a press conference, you can’t say much because the questions are focused on specific players.”
It’s unprecedented for a national team coach to skip a press conference to announce a roster. Like Klinsmann, his predecessor, Paulo Bento, who led the team to the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, held an online press conference via YouTube, but it was a last-ditch effort amid tightened quarantines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vento has been living in Ilsan, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province, and has been observing K League players for a long time.
Under these circumstances, Klinsmann’s foreign interview, which was released the day before the national team roster was announced, has raised eyebrows among soccer fans. In an interview with the British tabloid Mirror, he advised Harry Kane, who recently moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Germany’s top club Bayern Munich, to adapt to the local culture quickly by learning German. This was met with criticism on social media, saying that this was not the advice of a coach who had not fulfilled his promise to live in Korea.
Klinsmann has received special treatment that no other foreign coach has enjoyed in the past. He is allowed to work from home abroad, serve as an advisor to the European Football Federation (UEFA), and appear on the ESPN broadcast panel.
“I don’t know how they signed the contract with the association, but if you’re in charge of a national team, you should at least not have a second job, or at least show that you’re loyal to your job,” said a soccer insider who has coached in the K League. “Whether it’s a change in contract terms or pressure, the only one who can move Klinsmann is the Football Association,” he said.
Kim Dae-gil, a commentator for the Kyunghyang Shinmun, also pointed out that “organizations such as the National Team Technical Enhancement Committee, which can be briefed on the background of the coach’s selection of players, should be functioning normally.” “The federation should have a vision for the development of Korean soccer and be able to make the national team work as a system, but that’s not happening,” Kim said.