By Pearse McLaughlin
Jürgen Klinsmann has been appointed as the new Head Coach of the South Korean men’s national football team. Klinsmann has signed a three-year contract until after the 2026 FIFA World Cup putting an end of his three-year hiatus from football management since leaving Hertha Berlin in 2020.
Jürgen Klinsmann was born on the 30th of July 1964 and is 58 years old. His place of birth is Goppingen, West Germany and he stands at 1.81 metres tall (5 ft 11) and was a striker in his professional footballing days. In his illustrious playing career, he played for; Stuttgarter Kickers, VFB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich, Sampdoria, and Orange County Blue Star.
In a club career that spanned 22 years, 8 clubs, 620 appearances, 284 goals. The major honours he won in his club career were the UEFA Cup with Inter Milan in the 1990/91 season, he won the UEFA Cup for a second time in the 1995/96 season but this time at German giants Bayern Munich and he also won the Bundesliga in the 1996/97 season also with Bayern Munich. In terms of individual awards, Jürgen Klinsmann also finished as the runner up for the prestigious award in 1995 to the only African player to do so in the history of the award and that is none other than George Weah. This award defines the greatest players to ever have played the game and that was the Ballon d’Or.
He also represented West Germany on 26 occasions and finding the back of the net 7 times. and Germany on 82 appearances and notching an impressive 40 goals during his international career. During his time with West Germany, he won the ultimate prize in football in 1990 and that was the FIFA World Cup, defeating Argentina 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy.
Not all great players especially attackers make great coaches/managers apart from Zinedine Zidane. But most of the outstanding managers today didn’t either play football at a high level or where defensive minded. That goes for the likes of Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte to name a few.
In terms of Jurgen Klinsmann and his managerial career, he has had stints with Germany, Bayern Munich, USA and most recently Hertha Berlin. This won’t be his first rodeo in terms of taking charge of a national side and in South Korea they are a nation on the rise with many of their stars playing in Europe and not only that but performing well. South Korea is off the back of a successful FIFA World Cup campaign in Qatar where they managed to advance out of a tough group that contained Portugal, Uruguay, and Ghana.
Klinsmann was successful more in international football management where he managed to guide Germany to the 2006 FIFA World Cup semi-finals on home soil. Klinsmann oversaw the German national side for 2 years and was successful in that time where he got back-to-back 3rd place finishes at both the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup. He took charge of 34 matches in that time where they managed to win 20 times, drawing 8 times, and losing only 6 games. He also had an impressive goal difference of +40, scoring 81 goals and conceding 41 times, as well as an impressive win rate of 58.82%. This is his highest win rate to date as a manager.
An impressive spell as the head coach of the United States of America (USA) followed. He took charge of the USA for five years, dating from 29th July 2011 – 21 November 2016. In that time, USA won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2013 defeating Panama 1-0, as well as qualifying for the last 16 of the FIFA World Cup in 2014.
Although his tenure did turn sour towards the end and was ultimately fired from his post in 2016 after a slow start to the final round of regional qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. The Americans’ loss to Mexico was the first by the U.S. team in a home World Cup qualifier in 15 years and they followed it up with a 4-0 defeat to Costa Rica which sealed his fate.
Overall, during his stint as the head coach of the USA national team it was successful to a point as he took the nation as far as they could possibly go. Klinsmann racked up an impressive win percentage of 56.12%. He took charge of 98 matches (a career high), where he won 55 games, drew 16, and lost 27 times. His goal difference was also positive, his side racked up 178 goals, conceding 109 times in 98 matches leaving his side with a goal difference of +69.
Here's what Jürgen Klinsmann had to say following his appointment as the new South Korea Head Coach:
“I am very happy and honoured to be the head coach of the South Korea national team. I am well aware that the Korean national team has been constantly improving and producing results over a long period of time. It is an honour for me to be following in the footsteps of coaches including Guus Hiddink and Paulo Bento. We will do our best to achieve successful results in the upcoming Asian Cup and 2026 World Cup."
It is not clear yet who will make up his backroom staff. But what is clear is that Klinsmann has requested to bring at least four of his own assistants as well as two Korean Assistants. In the past he has brought in young coaches with the highest profile being none other than world renowned Joachim Low. Joachim Low went to win the FIFA World Cup in 2014 with Germany but ply his trade under the tutelage of JürgenKlinsmann.
In terms of the two Korean assistants former Ulsan Hyundai manager Kim Do-Hoon is a candidate to join Klinsmann’s team. One man that is highly sought after by both the KFA (Korean Football Association) and Klinsmann himself is Cha Du-Ri, but he remains committed to his project at FC Seoul where he is looking to reform the club’s youth academy. If they manage to convince Cha Du-Ri to comeback for a third stint, it will make transitioning better for Klinsmann as he has experience working with the current crop of players and valuable World Cup experience. Guam head coach Kim Sang-Hoon is also a candidate.
South Korea's football association on Monday the 27th of February appointed Jürgen Klinsmann as its new national team head coach. Klinsmann, 58, will arrive in Seoul next week and be in charge when South Korea faces Colombia in a friendly on March the 24th. It will be the third national team appointment for the former German striker, who won the World Cup as a player in 1990. After retiring as a player in 1998, he coached Germany from 2004 to 2006 and the United States from 2011 to 2016.
In my opinion this a shrewd move by the KFA in appointing Jürgen Klinsmann to lead South Korea as their head coach at the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals which are being held in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He has a load of talent at his disposal in Europe such as Captain Son Heung-Min at Spurs, Kim Min-Jae at Napoli, Lee Kang-In at Mallorca, Hwang Hee-Chan at Wolves and Hwang In-Beom at Olympiacos to name a few. South Korea also has a host of talent that is residing in the K-League 1 too such as Eom Won-Sang at Ulsan Hyundai, Cho Gue-Sung at Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Eom Ji-Sung at Gwangju FC, Song Min-Kyu at Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Lee Dong-Jun at Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, and Hwang Ui-Jo at FC Seoul to name a few.
With this squad at his disposal as well as young talent coming through at his disposal, I believe the aim for South Korea at the 2026 FIFA World Cup should be to at least advance to the last 16 as a bare minimum. Klinsmann knows the region well having managed in the US before as their coach from 2011-2016. So, this should play into South Korea’s favour in terms of tactics and team selection due to travel and climate in this region. With this in mind I think South Korea will advance to the quarter finals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. What happened under the legendary management of Guus Hiddink in 2002 where they defied all odds-on home soil and advanced to the semi-finals and lost 1-0 to Germany won’t happen again. But one can dream.
South Korea co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament with Japan. They had never won a game in the World Cup previously and took big scalps along the way defeating Portugal 1-0 in the group stage, last 16 they defeated Italy 2-1 and, in the quarter-finals they emerged victorious 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out. The 2002 World Cup run is still talked about today in South Korea with many pubs got Hiddink’s picture up on the wall. A successful World Cup is Quarter Final place for me and that would be depending on the draw but as you have seen in the past South Korea can mix it with the best and cause an upset. For me, always a dark horse at the World Cup that a lot of people sleep on as they’re a small footballing nation. You just have to look at Croatia for inspiration and it can be done with the right structure in place.
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