'Nowhere to go' retired player kicks goals with TV shows

Ahn Jung-hwan in reality travel TV show “Guide” on tvN / Screen capture from YouTube

Former national footballer Ahn Jung-hwan has confessed on TV that he “had nowhere else to go” after he retired.

Ahn, 39, appeared on

reality travel show “Guide” on tvN and chatted with three travelers on a bus during a European trip.

One asked Ahn if he received a pension after he retired in January 2012. The footballer, who had played for Dalian Shide in the Chinese Super League since 2009, said he did not. And because he had nothing to do, he stayed home for six months drinking and “doing nothing.”

Ahn Jung-hwan from 2002 FIFA World Cup / Korea Times file

“I felt so void after I retired,” Ahn said on the bus. “My wife first treated me well at home but later began to get antsy with me doing nothing and begged me to go outside.”

Ahn’s friends also urged him to do something, so he decided to make himself a regular fixture in TV programs.

He has appeared in TV reality entertainment shows including “Laws of the Jungle” on SBS, “Dad, Where Are We Going?” on MBC, and “Youth FC Hungry Eleven” on KBS2.