Jürgen Klinsmann, head coach of the national football team, was booed by Korean fans at the Seoul World Cup Stadium during an exhibition match between South Korea and Tunisia.
When Klinsmann’s face appeared on the Seoul World Cup Stadium screen to introduce the team before the friendly against Tunisia kicked off on the afternoon of the 13th, the crowd booed in unison.
This was in contrast to the cheers that erupted when Son Heung-min (Tottenham), who started the game from the bench, appeared on the screen.
This was the aftermath of the team’s failure to win any of their four domestic A matches in March and June.
Klinsmann’s team drew two games against Colombia (2-2) and Uruguay (1-2) in March and lost two games against Peru (0-1) and El Salvador (1-1) in June.
Klinsmann’s first win came in September’s A match, which was played away from home in England.
Klinsmann earned his first win on 13 September against Saudi Arabia (1-0) at St James’ Park in Newcastle, England. It was just his sixth game in charge.
The result did not prove his leadership, and the ‘foreign travel controversy’ raised eyebrows from fans.
Contrary to his statement at the time of his appointment that he would stay in Korea, he has been spending most of his time abroad, leading to criticism that he is taking the position of national team coach lightly.
Kim Do-hyung, 40, who travelled to the match against Tunisia from Gangnam-gu, Seoul, said he didn’t like Klinsmann’s “process”.
“I felt bad that Klinsmann didn’t stay in Korea like he said at the beginning, but kept going out of the country,” Kim said, adding, “It’s not like the A-match results were good. I’m worried that we won’t be able to perform well at the Asian Cup.”
The 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup was originally scheduled to be held in China in July, but was moved to Qatar and will now take place in January-February 2024. South Korea, under Klinsmann, will be looking to win the tournament for the first time in 64 years since 1960.
Kim compared Klinsmann to former coach Paulo Bento and expressed his frustration with the “noise” in the build-up.
“You might think that you only need to show the winning result, but I don’t think that’s the case. “At that time, the process of preparing for the tournament made sense and was understandable to the fans, but now it doesn’t seem to be the case,” he said.
Meanwhile, just before kickoff, fans observed a minute’s silence in memory of former coach Park Jong-hwan, who passed away on the 7th.
Jong-hwan led South Korea to the quarter-finals of the 1983 World Under-20 Championship in Mexico and won three consecutive titles from 1993 to 1995 as Seongnam Ilhwa coach. 무료슬롯게임