EPL Sunderland manager was ‘all-time great’
“We will make Jeonbuk the best team again.”
Cha Du-ri becomes the first coach of the new Hwaseong FC
Hwaseong is the hometown of his father, Cha Bum-geun.
Professional soccer team Jeonbuk, which was on the verge of being relegated to the second division this season, entrusted the baton to a former coach of the English Premier League (EPL).
Jeonbuk Club announced on the 24th, “We have recruited coach Gus Poyet (57) to help the team take a leap forward.” The contract period and annual salary were not disclosed. Jeonbuk explained, “Coach Poyet has accumulated a lot of experience in the European league as a player and leader, and was judged to be the best person to lead Jeonbuk’s future.”
Coach Poyet, a former member of the Uruguay national team, played as a player for Chelsea and Tottenham in the EPL, and after retirement, gained leadership experience as a head coach at Leeds United and Tottenham. Since then, he has coached Brighton (England’s second division) for the first time and has coached European league clubs such as Sunderland (England), AEK Athens (Greece), Real Betis (Spain), and Bordeaux (France). He also served as a coach in the Chinese league, Shanghai Shenhua. He led the Greek national team from 2022 until March of this year. When he was manager of Sunderland, he and Ki Sung-yong (FC Seoul) were close friends.
Coach Poyet was also mentioned as one of the successors to former coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who served as the head coach of the Korean national soccer team. Coach Poyet is evaluated as the most valuable foreign coach in the history of Korean professional soccer, surpassing former Bucheon (current Jeju) coach Valery Nypomnisi from Russia and former FC Seoul coach Senol Gunes from Turkey.
Jeonbuk, which has reigned as the strongest team in Korean professional soccer by winning the K-League 1 (1st division) championship a record 9 times, finished the regular season in 10th place out of 12 teams under former coach Dan Petrescu (Romania) and Kim Doo-hyun this season. As a result, they were pushed into the relegation playoffs (PO). They survived in the first division by winning the promotion PO against Seoul E-Land in K League 2 (2nd division), but their performance was the worst since the introduction of the promotion and relegation system in 2013.
Coach Poyet said, “The K League 1 stage is a new challenge as a coach. “I will do my best to communicate with the players and gain the trust of the fans so that Jeonbuk can become the best team,” he said. Coach Poyet will enter the country on the 28th and leave for training in Thailand with the team on January 2nd next year.
Hwaseong FC, which will join the second division starting next year, appointed former national soccer team coach Cha Du-ri as the team’s first coach. Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, is the hometown of former national soccer team coach Cha Bum-geun, coach Cha’s father.
Reporter Kim Jeong-hoon [email protected]
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