2024-04-20 13:43:53
Following the existing Tilikainen and Ogino, three new members joined: Blanc, Rivera and Paez.
5 out of 7 teams in the new season have ‘foreign head coaches’
“Recruitment boom due to Korean Air’s 4 consecutive wins”
There are concerns that “Korean leadership’s position is narrowing”
The ‘heyday of foreign coaches’ was held in the professional volleyball V-League men’s division. Five of the seven men’s teams will entrust the baton to foreigners for the 2024-2025 season. Following the existing Korean Air director Tommy Tilikainen (37, Finland) and Ogino Massage OK Financial Group director (54, Japan), Hyundai Capital director Philippe Blanc (64, France), KB Insurance director Miguel Rivera (40, Spain), and Mauricio Coach Paes Wooricard (61, Brazil) has joined the team.
Even when expanding the scope to Korea’s four major professional sports (baseball, soccer, basketball, and volleyball), it is unprecedented for foreign coaches to occupy more than half of the league. Currently, in sports other than volleyball, there are only two head coaches with non-Korean nationality: women’s professional basketball coach Guna Dan (42) at Shinhan Bank and men’s professional basketball coach Kim Hyo-beom (41) at Samsung. Both directors are Korean Canadians born in Seoul. In professional baseball, where foreign managers were once popular, all 10 teams’ managers are now Korean. In professional soccer, the number of foreign coaches also dropped to zero as Jeonbuk coach Dan Petrescu (57, Romania) resigned early this month due to poor performance. In the women’s professional volleyball division, the only foreign coach is Heungkuk Life Insurance coach Marcello Abondanza (54, Italy).
Foreign coaches in the men’s professional volleyball division also have a unique ‘name value’. Hyundai Capital Coach Blanc led the French national team from 2001 to 2012 and rose to the ranks of world-class greats. Last year, as coach of the Japanese national team, he won a bronze medal in the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Volleyball Nations League (VNL). Coach Paes of Woori Card is the current head coach of the Iranian national team, the strongest in Asia, and Coach Rivera also has experience leading the Spanish national team.
The boom in foreign coaches in the men’s professional volleyball team is due to Korean Air. Ahead of the 2020-2021 season, Korean Air entrusted the baton to coach Roberto Santilli (59, Italy), the first foreign coach in the men’s division. In his first year in office, Coach Santilli led the team to the top of the regular league and championship game, achieving its first overall championship since its founding. Coach Tilkainen, who took over the baton from Coach Santilli, extended the overall winning record to four consecutive seasons. This is the first time this has happened in V-League history. Coach Ogino also brought OK Financial Group to the championship game upon taking office in the 2023-2024 season. It was the first time in eight years that OK Financial Group advanced to the championship. On the other hand, in the women’s division, the new team Pepper Savings Bank entrusted the baton to a foreign coach twice in a row, but the results were poor, so there are not many clubs looking for a foreign coach.
The lack of diversity among Korean director candidates also had an impact. In the men’s division, it is not easy to find a ‘new face’ because a ’40-year-old coach’ was appointed just recently. An official from one club said, “There is a high expectation that foreign coaches will evaluate players from scratch without prejudice and discover new talent and develop them.”
The biggest reason foreign directors prefer Korea is ‘money.’ Foreign coaches receive an annual salary of approximately 300 to 400 million won. There are not many volleyball leagues in the world that pay this amount of money as coach salary. This is possible because the V-League is the only one in the world that officially promotes ‘professional volleyball.’ One agent said, “Originally, there was a strong perception that the V-League was a ‘closed market,’ but as the number of clubs selecting foreign coaches has increased, interest from leaders is soaring. “It is said that more than 20 resumes came in just on the day a club announced that it had decided to hire a new manager.”
There are also voices calling for caution against ‘foreign director omnipotence.’ Since foreign coaches often fill their coaches with foreigners, there are concerns that the space for Korean leaders to stand is becoming increasingly narrow.
Reporter Kang Hong-gu windup@donga.com
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2024-04-20 13:43:53