{"id":2968,"date":"2024-02-17T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=2968"},"modified":"2024-02-17T14:12:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T14:12:39","slug":"south-korea-fires-national-team-soccer-coach-after-star-son-heung-mins-brawl-with-teammate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=2968","title":{"rendered":"South Korea Fires National Team Soccer Coach After Star Son Heung-Min\u2019s Brawl With Teammate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The coach of the South Korean national soccer team has been fired in the wake of a brawl between star player and captain Son Heung-min and midfielder Lee Kang-in before the team\u2019s disastrous Asian Cup exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c(J\u00fcrgen) Klinsmann has failed to show his competence in managing the game, the players, along with the expected attitudes as a South Korean coach,\u201d Chung Mong-gyu, chairman of the Korean Football Association (KFA) said announcing Klinsmann\u2019s ouster on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKlinsmann\u2019s competence and his attitudes do not measure up to the standard of the Korean nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anger over Klinsmann\u2019s management of the national team has been heating up in South Korea since its Asian Cup disappointment and news of the altercation between the hugely popular Son and rising star Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier Friday, a KFA official confirmed to CNN that Son, the Tottenham Hotspur superstar and captain, and Lee, who plays club soccer for Paris Saint-Germain in France\u2019s Ligue 1, clashed about playing table tennis before the national team\u2019s 2-0 loss to Jordan in the Asian Cup semifinal on February 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA physical brawl occurred between the Korean national football team players Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in during dinner the day before the Asian Cup semifinal match against Jordan,\u201d an official at the KFA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-b5860a31ddb3ac02788c505b8da65625 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:400px; height:400px; max-height:400px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wB1l0wBm1Gg?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen referrerpolicy=\"origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official added that the KFA could not confirm any further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The loss to Jordan, No. 87 in FIFA\u2019s world rankings, was seen as a major embarrassment for the 23rd-ranked South Korean side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photographs and video from the day of the Jordan match show Son with two fingers on his right hand strapped together with a white bandage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A statement from Lee\u2019s lawyer&nbsp;<strong>\ufeff<\/strong>Kim Ga-ram said that the player \u201cdeeply regrets and reflects on his wrongdoings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kim said in a statement that playing table tennis is a regular activity for the South Korea squad and that local media reports alleging Lee \u201cthrew a fist in Son Heung-min\u2019s face when Son Heung-min grabbed the back of Lee Kang-in\u2019s neck\u201d are \u201cnot true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an Instagram story, reported by CNN affiliate JTBC, Lee apologized to South Korean fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere was an article about me having a verbal argument with Son ahead of the Asian Cup semifinal,\u201d Lee wrote. \u201cI am very sorry to disappoint football fans who are always supporting the South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;international team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added that, \u201cI should\u2019ve taken the lead and followed senior players\u2019 instructions, but I am sorry that I showed not nice behavior to football fans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI will try to be a better player and person helping senior and older players from now on,\u201d Lee wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Son has not made any public comment concerning the incident. CNN has reached out to his agency for comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, a KFA advisory committee recommended the association fire Klinsmann for various reasons including his lack of leadership, not making enough efforts to discover new players, and for not spending enough time in South Korea while taking the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Klinsmann seemed to question his team\u2019s resolve after the Jordan loss, saying opponents \u201cwanted it more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then in a video meeting with KFA officials on Thursday, Klinsmann pointed a finger at South Korean players for the disappointing exit from the Asian Cup, according to Hwangbo Kwan, technical director of the KFA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKlinsmann himself said the cause of failure lied in the internal conflict,\u201d Kwan told a briefing after the Thursday meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Klinsmann had been head coach for less than a year and was under contract through the 2026 World Cup in North America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is hard to expect an improvement from him,\u201d association chairman Chung said Friday. \u201cWe, therefore, have decided to replace our leader for the second round of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That begins in just over a month for the&nbsp;<em>Taegeuk Warriors<\/em>&nbsp;when they are scheduled to face Thailand, which sits in second place in Group C behind Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly before his dismissal was announced Friday, Klinsmann went on social media to thank players and fans for their support during his tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo all players, my coaching staff and all Korean football fans with sincere gratitude! Thank you so much for all your support taking us to the semi-final of the Asian Cup and an incredible journey over the last 12 months with not losing 13 games in a row!\u201d his&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/J_Klinsmann\/status\/1758341094235160832\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">post on X<\/a>&nbsp;and Instagram said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKeep on fighting,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source; CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The coach of the South Korean national soccer team has been fired in the wake of a brawl between star player and captain Son Heung-min and midfielder Lee Kang-in before the team\u2019s disastrous Asian Cup exit. \u201c(J\u00fcrgen) Klinsmann has failed to show his competence in managing the game, the players, along with the expected attitudes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,11,22],"tags":[928,926,927],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-sports","category-world","tag-coach","tag-son-heung-min","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2968"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2971,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions\/2971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}