Football is expected | Losing the support of Son Heung-min and being forced to resign by public opinion South Korea has three difficulties in firing Klinsmann
Although it has been nearly a week since the South Korean team lost to Jordan in the Asian Cup, South Korea's public opinion is far from over for Klinsmann's crusade!
At the post-match press conference after South Korea's loss to Jordan, some South Korean media openly challenged the Germans by asking "when will Klinsmann get out of class" in public. When following the large army to Seoul, some South Korean media once again asked Klinsmann whether he had any plans to resign. But on both occasions, Klinsmann made it clear that he was going to lead the team to the World Cup, especially when he returned to South Korea in an interview, where he specifically mentioned how difficult the Asian Cup was in West Asia, and even emphasized that the South Korean team went further than Japan and China. Before returning to the United States, Klinsmann said that he would go to Europe after a short break to check on the state of his international players.
But judging from the current situation, Klinsmann will not necessarily be the head coach of the South Korean team when he goes to watch the game in the top five European leagues.
Since the South Korean team lost to Jordan in the Asian Cup, South Korean fans and even all walks of life have been putting pressure on Klinsmann and Chung Mong-kyu, chairman of the Korean Football Association, in the past few days, setting off a wave of demands for the resignation of the two in South Korea. Son Heung-min's good friend, actor Park Seo-joon, made it clear that "a foreign coach broke the hearts of 50 million people (the number of South Korean population)", and openly went to take Klinsmann out of class.
When the crusade against Klinsmann in South Korea was rising wave after wave, the national petition system of the South Korean National Assembly already had a petition demand that "the Football Association should be responsible for the liquidated damages for the removal of Klinsmann". And as support grows, the matter may be referred to the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Jurisdiction. If the Standing Committee on Jurisdiction of the National Assembly agrees, even if the Korean Football Association is indifferent, it will be referred to the National Assembly for a decision. It can be said that in South Korea, the question of whether Klinsmann will leave class has long become a hot issue in society!
It is clear that when the dissatisfaction of Klinsmann in South Korean society has reached a new level, the Korean Football Association cannot remain indifferent. "Yonhap News Agency" has revealed that the Korean Football Association will hold a meeting this week to evaluate whether Klinsmann will continue to coach.
Objectively speaking, the Korean Football Association currently has very good reasons to take Klinsmann down.
First of all, at the technical and tactical level, whether it is compared with his predecessor, Paulo Bento, who led the last World Cup cycle, or compared with his compatriot, Stillik, who was disgraced from the position of coach of the South Korean team, even compared with Shin Tae-long, who was appointed in 17 years and led the team to play in the 18-year World Cup, the South Korean team coached by Klinsmann held a better hand, but played a worse game.
Compared with the clear passing and control marks of Paulo Bento's time, Klinsmann's South Korean team has hardly shown the technical and tactical ideas of the head coach, and the Korean team's road to the Asian Cup is purely supported by the personal ability of several big-name players in the front court and the strong mental attributes of the whole team, and at the same time, there is enough good luck to help. It can be said that Klinsmann has proven in the past year that he is not capable of leading this group of players to continue to improve.
In addition, after the loss to Jordan, when Son Heung-min said that he did not know what would happen in the future, the coach might not think about his first time, although Klinsmann made it clear that "Son Heung-min's presence is necessary for the South Korean national team, and he will continue to play as the captain of the national team". But with Son Heung-min's ability, he really doesn't know if he has the ability to continue to enter the South Korean team? The underlying meaning of this sentence is that he doesn't want to play for Klinsmann. When Klinsmann has lost the support of Son Heung-min, this reason alone is actually enough for the Korean Football Association to change the coach.
Of course, there are several difficulties in the change of coach of the South Korean team at this time, first of all, in terms of time, there is only one month left before the next training camp of the Korean team to prepare for the two world preliminaries against Thailand. At this time, if it is decided to change the coach, there is very limited time left for the Korean team to choose a coach.
Klinsmann's contract with the Korean Football Association runs until the end of the 2026 World Cup, and the phased goals set in the contract are the top eight of the Asian Cup and the successful qualification for the World Preliminary Tournament. Obviously, judging from the coaching record, Klinsmann did not trigger the phased dismissal clause, if the South Korean team chooses to change the coach, it needs to pay full compensation for the remaining two and a half years of the contract of the Klinsmann team, and it needs to pay about 7 billion won (about 4.6 million euros)
Taking out 4.6 million euros at one time is not a small number. Of course, because the Korean Football Association has always had the support of the chaebol behind him, and Zheng Mengkui is behind Hyundai Motor, so if you really want to decide to change the coach, liquidated damages are not a problem. But the problem is that on the question of whether to win Klinsmann, it is a matter of Zheng Mengkui's position, and it also involves the direction of the South Korean national team in the next few years.
Since taking office in 2013, Chung Mong-kyu has been trying to promote the Westernization of the Korean national team. However, Stillik, who was hired by Zheng Mengkui during his tenure, failed, and although Paul Bento did not lead the team to do well in the Asian Cup, he finally qualified for the World Cup; if Klinsmann is removed at this time, and two of the three head coaches of the South Korean national team appointed by Zheng Mengkui are declared to have failed by leaving class early, then how will South Korea evaluate the "Westernization Movement" set off by Zheng Mengkui? After Zheng Mengkui leaves office next year, how will public opinion evaluate his work? Should the South Korean team hire a local coach or a foreign coach next?