SEOUL, The South Korean football club Suwon FC announced their hiring of former men's under-20 national team head coach Kim Eun-jung as their new bench boss Wednesday.
After finishing with the second-worst record in the K League 1 and barely avoiding relegation to the K League 2, Suwon FC have turned to the 44-year-old tactician who has never been a head coach at club level. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Kim is taking over from Kim Do-kyun, who left for a K League 2 club Seoul E-Land FC last Thursday.
Suwon FC finished the 2023 season in 11th place among 12 clubs in the K League 1 with 33 points. They also conceded a record 76 goals in 38 matches and had the worst goal difference this season at -32.
Suwon FC rallied past Busan IPark in the promotion-relegation playoffs to stave off relegation earlier this month.
This image provided by Suwon FC on Dec. 20, 2023, shows the K League 1 club's new head coach, Kim Eun-jung.
Kim Eun-jung led South Korea to the semifinals at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina this summer, far exceeding pretournament expectations.
Kim played in the K League from 1997 to 2014 for five different clubs, lastly with Daejeon Hana Citizen FC. He was a player-coach for Daejeon in 2014, and later served as an assistant at the fourth-tier Belgian club AFC Tubize from 2015 to 2017.
Kim was an assistant on the South Korean men's U-23 national team from 2017 to 2021, and then took the helm of the U-20 men's squad in 2022.
In this file photo from June 14, 2023, Kim Eun-jung, then head coach of the South Korean men's under-20 national football team, speaks to reporters at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, after returning home from the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina.
"I feel a huge sense of responsibility, but I know exactly what my role is," Kim said in a statement released by Suwon FC. "This is a new challenge for me, and I will do my best to live up to expectations."
Choi Soon-ho, director of football at Suwon FC, said: "As we saw at the U-20 World Cup, Kim Eun-jung is a young tactician who has been ready for this role. We expect him to bring great results based on his well-defined football philosophy."
Source: Yonhap News Agency