In the midst of all the turmoil in the Chinese soccer world on February 21st, a piece of explosive news spread quickly. Korea's leading media outlet Joongang Ilbo disclosed the latest development of former South Korean national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who has just stepped down from the South Korean coaching whip, and may be moving to Asian soccer as a potential new manager of the Chinese national team, which is undoubtedly a piece of inspiring good news.
As fans know, Jankovic's position is in jeopardy after the national soccer team's return from the Asian Cup. According to multiple sources, the Football Association has quietly started the coach replacement process, Cui Kangxi, Queiroz, Ivankovic and Petkovic have all become the favorite candidates for the new coach. However, the FA's selection list seems to be much more than that, just retired from the Korean coaching world Klinsmann also quietly on the list.
In its report, Joongang Ilbo noted, "Klinsmann has been a blank on the national team coaching shortlist since the CFA terminated Jankovic's contract last month." The outlet also revealed that Klinsmann's salary is not exorbitant, a condition acceptable to the FA, while his annual salary while coaching in South Korea was around 2.9 billion won (about 15.45 million yuan).
From a report in the Central Daily News, Klinsmann has jumped to the top of the list of favorites to be the new manager of the national soccer team. Compared to Queiroz and Ivankovic, Klinsmann has a clear advantage in coaching the national team. After all, he was in the same group as the national soccer team during his coaching stint in South Korea and has an in-depth understanding of the strengths and tactics of the national soccer team.
It is worth mentioning that South Korea beat the national soccer team 3-0 in the qualifying match, which deeply annoyed the new head of the Football Association, Song Kai. In an interview, Song Kai expressed his expectation for a German coach to coach the team, hoping that sometime in the future, a German coach will lead the national team to beat South Korea 4-0. Therefore, at the time of the South Korean team coaching change, the domestic media have speculated that Klinsmann may take over the coaching whip of the national football team.
Now, a report in the Central Daily News further confirms the speculation. So, will Klinsmann join hands with local players such as Wu Lei and Zhang Yuning to strike back and bring new hope to the national soccer team? This is all still unknown.
