Hong recounts rollercoaster reputation

Hong Myung-bo

By Kang Hyun-kyung

In Korea, it’s a matter of time for those who lead the national football team to become the target of a witch hunt.

If the team fails to garner the “desirable outcomes” that football fans set in crucial international games such as in the World Cup, the manager soon falls into the victim of the expectation game. He is considered the source of all the problems team Korea has.

The manager-bashing follows. And some are forced to resign in the face of worsening public opinion, although their contracts are still valid.

Former Korean national team manager Hong Myung-bo, 47, says he is all too familiar with the rollercoaster reputation facing national team managers because he experienced it after Korea failed to enter the Round of 16 during the 2014 Brazil World Cup.

“As a manager, I did my best to pull together the best team possible, and achieve the best possible results during the 2014 Brazil World Cup. But for some reason, our team underperformed,” he recalled in his dissertation submitted to Korea University.

His doctoral paper took the form of an auto-ethnography, a qualitative research form showing the author’s self-reflection based on personal memory, data and interviews with related people to explore their experiences and find its social and cultural implications. Unlike other academic research papers, authors use the first person.

“I was described as a self-centered, stubborn manager,” he said.

Hong, now a manager of the Chinese professional football club Hangzhou Greentwon, was a star athlete while playing in the national team for 13 years from 1990. His successful career continued after he took on the leadership post of the national football team. His reputation hit a high-point in 2012 when he successfully led the national team to win a bronze medal during the London Olympics. He was lauded for his merit-based leadership.

But his popularity was short-lived. The star manager suddenly became a questionable leader following the national team’s failure at the Brazil World Cup.

Football fans blamed him harshly for the team’s disappointing performance.

At the center of the controversy was his pick of striker Park Chu-young, who now plays for FC Seoul in the Korean professional football league.

Critics said Park’s performance with the British Premier League club Arsenal were disappointing and thus Hong’s choice of Park for the World Cup was a big mistake which ultimately led to the team’s disappointing performance.

Park was once called a football genius. When he played at AS Monaco, he scored 26 goals in 103 games.

His performance after he moved to Arsenal in 2011, however, was dismal. He played only seven games in three years. This earned him the nickname, “the man on the bench.”

During the World Cup, Park missed several opportunities to score goals, causing Hong, the man who selected him, to face harsh criticism from domestic fans.

In his paper, Hong said he made mistakes in the selection of national team athletes and he applied double standards when he selected some players. He didn’t specify whether his comments were about Park or not.

Hong said being a national team manager is a tough job.

“While playing games as a football player and then as a coach, I’ve watched many outstanding managers who suddenly fell after their team failed to achieve the goals set earlier. They were blamed harshly and some were forced to leave,” he said.

Despite his prior knowledge of the high pressure facing national team managers, Hong said he realized surviving the tough days was really challenging. “Every single day was really tough to endure,” he said.

Hong was one of the greatest Asian football players when he played for the national team. Starting from the 1990 Italy World Cup, he was the first Asian player to play in four consecutive World Cup final tournaments. He was chosen among the FIFA 100, Pele’s selection of the world’s 125 greatest living football players. He is the only Asian to win the FIFA World Cup Bronze Ball in 2002. His ability to play deep into the midfield and strike long distance balls earned him the nickname, “the Libero of Korea.”

Following his stellar athletic career, he was chosen as a coach for the national team and then manager. Under his leadership, the Korean national under-20 football team reached the quarterfinals in the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup.