Jurgen Klinsmann fired as S. Korea men’s football coach

Jurgen Klinsmann was fired as head coach of the South Korean men’s national football team Friday, days after the country suffered a disappointing exit at the top Asian tournament.

Chung Mong-gyu, president of the Korea Football Association (KFA), announced his decision to sack Klinsmann at a press conference following a 2 1/2-hour meeting with senior executives, barely a year after appointing him. Chung acted on a recommendation made by the National Team Committee of the KFA on Thursday that Klinsmann could no longer function as the national team’s head coach for various reasons.

The move comes after South Korea lost to Jordan 2-0 without a shot on goal in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in Qatar on Feb. 6, with Chung in attendance. The shocking loss to a team ranked 64 spots below ended South Korea’s dreams of winning their first AFC title since 1960.

“After a comprehensive review of the recommendation, we have decided to replace the head coach of the national team,” Chung read from a prepared statement. “When it comes to bringing out the best in the national team, managing players and his work habits, Klinsmann did not live up to our expectations of a national team head coach, nor did he demonstrate leadership. We decided that Klinsmann was unlikely to improve as head coach, in terms of his abilities and work ethic.”

South Korea’s next matches are back-to-back World Cup qualifying contests against Thailand next month– in Seoul on March 21 and in Bangkok five days later. Chung said the KFA will “immediately” begin the process of hiring Klinsmann’s replacement, though he said no names have yet been thrown into the ring.

Soon after South Korea’s elimination, Klinsmann began hearing calls to resign to take the fall for not taking his talented squad to the top. His team featured, among others, Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Lee Kang-in and Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae.

Klinsmann had defied those demands, saying he was planning to review and analyze South Korea’s performance at the Asian Cup with the KFA and to start preparing for World Cup qualifying matches scheduled for March.

South Korea had eight wins, six draws and three losses under Klinsmann. South Korea defeated Saudi Arabia 4-2 on penalties in the round of 16 at the Asian Cup, but a shootout victory goes into the books as a draw.

Though the KFA has never officially disclosed financial details of Klinsmann’s contract, he is believed to have been making US$2.2 million per year. By firing Klinsmann, the KFA will have to pay him for the remainder of his deal, which was set to run through the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“We will have to discuss contract issues with lawyers,” Chung said. “If there is any additional financial burden on the KFA, I will explore ways in which I can make contributions as president of the organization.”

Klinsmann won the 1990 FIFA World Cup as a player with West Germany and was considered one of the world’s premier strikers in the 1980s and 1990s. As a coach, however, he hasn’t been able to match his sterling playing resume, aside from managing Germany to third place at the 2006 World Cup on their home soil.

His other coaching stops included Bayern Munich in the top German league and the U.S. men’s national team.

Long before he was named South Korea’s head coach on Feb. 27, 2023, to replace Paulo Bento, Klinsmann had been labeled as a coach who lacked tactical acumen. That reputation held through the early stretch of his South Korean tenure, as the team went winless in their first five matches and looked listless in the process.

South Korea won their final five matches of 2023, somewhat quieting Klinsmann’s detractors.

Then in January this year, South Korea beat Iraq 1-0 in their final Asian Cup tuneup match. They opened the group stage of the tournament with a 3-1 victory over Bahrain. However, that ended up being the team’s only victory in 90 minutes.

South Korea were held to a 2-2 draw by Jordan in the next match, only grabbing a point thanks to Jordan’s late own goal. The Taegeuk Warriors then settled for a 3-3 draw against 130th-ranked Malaysia, a team that hadn’t scored in their two earlier matches.

South Korea squeezed past Saudi Arabia 4-2 on penalties, with a last-gasp equalizer sending the match to extra time. They also needed late offense to get by Australia 2-1 in the quarterfinals, with Son delivering an extra-time free kick goal for the narrow win.

And then they ran into a determined Jordan team that capitalized on South Korean miscues and kept their opposing attackers at bay. Midfielder Lee Jae-sung struck the right goal post once but South Korea didn’t come close to scoring again in the deflating loss.

The National Team Committee met Thursday to discuss Klinsmann’s status, with the coach himself joining the occasion via video from his U.S. home.

Following the hourslong session, Hwangbo Kwan, technical director of the KFA, said committee members concluded that Klinsmann had to go “based on a number of reasons.”

Hwangbo said those reasons included Klinsmann’s lack of tactical preparation, failure to recognize and address strife among players, and refusal to live in South Korea despite persistent criticism against him for spending too much time overseas.

According to Hwangbo, Klinsmann blamed the team’s poor Asian Cup showing on discord within the team — highlighted by an apparent dustup between Son and Lee the night before the Jordan match — instead of on the lack of tactical preparation. According to Hwangbo, Klinsmann did not acknowledge there had been any tactical issues on his part.

Per Hwangbo, other members claimed that the incident between the two key players indicated Klinsmann’s lack of leadership and his failure to establish rules and guidelines for his team.

Chung himself has been facing heat for hiring Klinsmann in the first place, even though the German had not held a coaching job since early 2020 and did not exactly have a sterling reputation at previous stops.

Chung has also been accused of unilaterally hiring Klinsmann without getting other officials involved in the process, but denied those charges on Friday.

“I think there has been a great deal of misunderstanding, regarding our process of hiring Klinsmann,” Chung said. “We went through all the proper steps that we had taken when hiring Paulo Bento. We started from a wide pool and narrowed it down to five candidates for interviews. We then had a second round of interviews with two final candidates and then settled on Klinsmann.”

Chung admitted that the KFA and he, as its president, are ultimately responsible for the mess that Klinsmann’s tenure created, but stopped short of announcing his resignation.

“We’ll take further steps to analyze reasons for the situation we’re in, and come up with measures accordingly,” Chung added.