In an interview on February 19th in BST, former Everton boss Rafa Benitez revealed his future plans. According to sources, he has received a sincere offer from the Korean Football Association.
Looking back at last year's World Cup, the South Korean team under the leadership of Portugal's famous coach Bento managed to beat Portugal and advance to the knockout stage. However, after the smoke of the World Cup cleared, Bento chose to say goodbye. Similar to his choice, Rafa Benitez was also a well-known coach in the Chinese Super League and gained a lot of experience during his time coaching Dalian Ren.
Recently, Rafa Benitez revealed in an interview with the media that he had received olive branches from the national soccer team, South Korea and Mexico. Given that the national football team has finalized Jankovic to take the helm, and the Mexican Football Federation has just identified Diego Coca as the new head coach, the possibility of Rafa Benitez coaching the South Korean team has undoubtedly increased greatly.
According to Korean media OSEN, Rafa Benitez has long been on the list of South Korea's coaching candidates.
It is understood that it is German technician Michael Muller who is currently in charge of selecting the South Korean team's coach. The media broke the news that former Brazil boss Tite, former Valencia boss José Bordelas and former Spain boss Roberto Moreno are on the shortlist. Of these, Tite is less likely to coach due to having been mocked by the Korean media, Moreno is in talks with the Chinese Super League seaport team, and Bordalas has been active in La Liga. Interestingly, Rafa Benitez has also managed Valencia.
Rafa Benitez has stated that he does not want to be a short-term coach (one year contract) but wants a long-term career plan (three years or more). This implies that he prefers to coach the national team rather than the club. South Korea had given Bento four years, culminating in success at the World Cup.
South Korea is a strong team and will be a relatively small test for the skipper in the World Qualifiers, which boasts eight places.
Rafa Benitez has been the coach of a number of top teams, including Real Madrid, Liverpool, Valencia, Napoli and Inter Milan, winning the league, Champions League and UEFA. In Asia, he may only be matched by former Chinese football boss Lippi. When Rafa Benitez coached Dalian Ren, the team's performance was unsatisfactory, even with many super foreign aiders, its performance and scoring was not as good as the "pressure to play" Xie Hui. South Korea's former manager Bento coached at Chongqing Swai, while Lippi was the manager of Guangzhou Evergrande.
Although South Korea does not have the same number of stayers in Europe as Japan and Iran, superstars such as Min Ja Kim and Son, as well as Hwang Hee Chan, are not to be underestimated. Rafa Benitez, who is currently working as a Premier League pundit, knows these players like the back of his hand. If everything comes true, the future South Korean team is expected to be the strongest team in Asia. I am afraid that the national football team will face a huge challenge if they want to replicate Lippi's glory.
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