grapplegraphics.com Is Jürgen Klinsmann, 59, truly committed to the South Korean national football team?
After facing criticism for not living in South Korea and focusing on a sideline rather than his main job, Klinsmann has been working remotely from abroad and has been active on overseas media panels.
He has been interviewed by overseas media to assess Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s decision to sign Wataru Endo (Japan),먹튀검증 and last week he predicted the outcome of the 2023-24 English Premier League (EPL) Tottenham-Manchester United match for ESPN, who contacted him from home.
He got it right, but the reaction from South Korean football fans was lukewarm. The general consensus is that his work as a football panelist for overseas media is noticeably more prevalent than his role as head coach of the South Korean national football team.
“The concerns that were raised before his appointment about his length of stay in Korea are coming to fruition,” said one. Klinsmann, who was tipped to win the Asian Cup, hasn’t won a point in four games since taking over. It would be unreasonable to expect a deep and wide understanding from the fans in this situation.
Klinsmann is aware that public opinion is not favourable towards him, and 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 or 30 years ago. You can see them on the pitch, but you can also keep in touch with them to see how they are doing. Our project has the Asian Cup in front of us and the World Cup in three years’ time.”
Since then, Klinsmann has been a regular on international media ‘panels’.
On ESPN’s YouTube channel, Klinsmann analysed Lionel Messi and Harry Kane, along with a review of the Tottenham-Manchester United match in the second round of the 2023-24 English Premier League (EPL).
Of course, it is good that our national team coach is in a position to observe the flow of world football and that he is invited by a leading media outlet or organisation. 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 home on 24 July after his holiday and left a week later on 1 August, and has been working remotely from the US ever since. With the exception of March and June, when he was away for A matches, he has spent most of his time in the US with his family.
Head coach Jürgen Klinsmann. Photo by Hong Geum-pyo, The Korea Herald
As a result, he hasn’t been to a K League game to observe the players in person for more than 20 matches. There is a huge difference between having the head of the national team on the field and not. This is in stark contrast to coach Paulo Bento, who often visited the K League with his team.
As a national team manager, you need to constantly discover new players, build a thicker player base, and increase the strength of your team. 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 football, 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 football team given his recent behaviour. The fact that the national team manager’s presence in the country is the centre of the news is itself a problem.
Klopp’s perceptions of 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 he’s at home in the United States, outside of Korea.