SEOUL, Jurgen Klinsmann, new head coach of the South Korean men's national football team, will arrive here Wednesday.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced Saturday that Klinsmann, the German football legend appointed South Korea's new bench boss earlier this week, is scheduled to land at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at 5:20 a.m. Wednesday. He will have a media scrum there, and then have a press conference at a Seoul hotel at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Klinsmann, 58, is taking over from Paulo Bento, who coached South Korea to the round of 16 at last year's FIFA World Cup to cap off his four-year tenure.
Klinsmann is signed through the next FIFA World Cup in 2026.
Klinsmann was one of the world's top strikers in his playing days, winning the 1990 World Cup for West Germany and becoming the first player to score at least three goals at three consecutive World Cups.
As head coach, Klinsmann led Germany to third place at the 2006 World Cup and the United States to the last 16 at the 2014 tournament.
He hasn't coached a national team since 2016 and his latest club coaching stint, with Hertha BSC, lasted just 10 weeks in early 2020. He has also been criticized for overemphasizing fitness and not offering much in the way of tactical guidance.
Klinsmann will have two chances to silence his detractors this month. He will make his South Korea debut against Colombia in a friendly match on March 24 in Ulsan, some 310 kilometers south of Seoul, and then face Uruguay four days later in Seoul.
Source: Yonhap News Agency