With Rennie sacked, 2nd tier Seoul E-Land in shambles

Martin Rennie

By John Duerden

In South Korea there are plenty of foreign soccer stars. FC Seoul has Dejan Damjanovic and Adriano scoring goals left, right and center while title rival Jeonbuk Motors has the talented Leanardo. Such players help Korean teams challenge their competitors in the Asian Champions League.

It is generally recognized that recruiting foreign players makes a team stronger and the best Korean teams over the years have benefited from talent that arrived here from overseas. Foreign players can help turn an average team into a good one and a good team into something special.

Of course, there have also been some mediocre players to arrive in the Land of the Morning Calm and there have been some good ones that found it difficult to settle and perform.

Yet, with the sport being a cosmopolitan one on the field, this week the only foreign coach in Korean professional football left the country. Martin Rennie was fired by second tier team Seoul E-Land. This means that all the coaches of the country’s 22 professional teams are Korean.

Rennie, a Scotsman who made his name as coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps in Major League Soccer, arrived in 2014. At the time, the club did not exist. It was in the process of being set up by retail giant E-Land. Rennie, 41, had built the team from scratch and their first season in the K-League Challenge was a good one.

The new team was near the top for the entire year helped by the goals of Joo Min-kyu, a player that Rennie converted from a midfielder to a free-scoring striker. In the end, a fourth place finish, just six points behind the champions Sangju Sangmu, was creditable and despite a defeat against Suwon in the promotion play-off series, there was reason to be optimistic for the 2016 season.

It started well with three wins and a tie in the first four games, but the goals have dried up and just one win in the last seven games has seen Seoul slip into sixth and almost out of the race for promotion. It wasn’t what the ambitious club wanted and after 18 months the relationship was over.

“Seoul E-Land FC thanks Martin Rennie for leading us for one-and-a-half years,” the club said in a statement. “We wish him the best in his future career.”

There are certain names being mentioned as a possible successor such as 2002 and 2006 World Cup star Seol Ki-hyeon, former Busan legend Lee Jang-kwan and assistant coach of the national team Park Kun-ha.

The new man will be Korean. There used to be a time when you could expect two or three foreign coaches in the top tier alone. Not anymore. One reason is money. They tend to be more expensive than local coaches and it is just easier to hire a Korean.

With a new man from outside, it takes time for him to settle into the country on and off the field, takes time to get to know the football scene and the players. Communication is tough and can be frustrating. Hiring a foreigner means more work. Going local is just easier in many ways.

Not better though. Foreign coaches are not automatically better, but they do bring different ideas, methods and ways of playing. In this most international of games, they are a welcome connection between domestic soccer players and South America and Europe.

It is a connection that should be re-established.