By Yoo Jee-ho
SEOUL, May 14 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s search for the new men’s national football team head coach has hit a snag after one prominent candidate took a different job, with the clock ticking down on the country’s next World Cup qualifying matches.
Canada Soccer announced Monday (local time) it has hired former Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch as the new bench boss for the men’s national team. Marsch, 50, has also coached Montreal Impact, New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig.
This Feb. 5, 2023, file photo by Associated Press shows then Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch prior to a Premier League match against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in Nottingham, England. (Yonhap)
The American tactician was touted as a possible United States head coach last year, and more recently, he was linked with the vacant South Korean job.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) has been looking for the new men’s head coach since firing Jurgen Klinsmann in February in light of South Korea’s semifinal exit at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup.
For South Korea’s two World Cup qualifying matches in March, the KFA had Hwang Sun-hong, who was coaching the men’s under-23 national team at the time, run the senior team’s bench as the temporary head coach.
At the end of April, the KFA had narrowed down the list of its candidates from 11 to three, all of them foreign nationals, with the goal of naming the new coach by early May. Sources confirmed at the time that Marsch was among the finalists. Chung Hae-sung, the KFA executive in charge of the coaching search as head of its National Teams Committee, is believed to have met Marsch in London last month.
Over the weekend, the KFA denied reports that its talks with Marsch had broken down over salary. And such reports came soon after Turkish media reports claimed that the KFA had removed the 71-year-old Turkish coach Senol Gunes from its list of candidates because of his age.
This Oct. 5, 2023, file photo by EPA shows then Besiktas head coach Senol Gunes during a Group D match against FC Lugano at the UEFA Europa Conference League at Besiktas Park in Istanbul. (Yonhap)
With Marsch no longer available, the KFA has already missed its self-imposed deadline of hiring the new men’s coach by early May. It faces the distinct possibility of playing another set of World Cup qualifying matches with a temporary coach on hand.
South Korea will wrap up the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup by visiting Singapore on June 6 and hosting China on June 11.
South Korea are leading Group C with 10 points from three wins and a draw. The top two nations from each of the nine groups will advance to the third round, which begins in September.
The Taegeuk Warriors have played at every World Cup since 1986.
In this file photo from April 2, 2024, Chung Hae-sung, head of the National Teams Committee at the Korea Football Association (KFA), speaks to reporters at the KFA House in Seoul. (Yonhap)
jeeho@yna.co.kr
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