"It's amazing that when I go out on the streets of Vietnam, everyone recognizes me and is very happy to see me, regardless of whether I'm a child, an adult, a grandfather, or a grandmother."
Coach Kim Sang-sik, who put the Vietnamese national soccer team at the top of Southeast Asia for the first time in six years, told Yonhap News in Hanoi on the 11th (local time) about the situation around him that has changed since winning the championship.
Coach Kim is enjoying explosive popularity in Vietnam as he recently won the Vietnamese national team at the 2024 Mitsubishi Electric Cup, the largest soccer tournament in Southeast Asia.
"After winning the championship, I was contacted by my acquaintances here, and they said, 'Even if I go into a meeting for work, everyone only talks about soccer,'" he said. "I felt proud to hear that I became easier to work in Vietnam as a Korean."
Vietnam, which had rapidly emerged as a Southeast Asian powerhouse under coach Park Hang-seo, has been sluggish under Philippe Trussier since then.
However, when head coach Kim rekindled Vietnam just eight months after his inauguration, there are praise like "Kim Sang-sik Magic" for his leadership.
"First of all, I observed a lot of the players on the field and grasped their strengths and weaknesses," he said. "As a result of selecting a player who fits my soccer philosophy that I have to be loyal to the team and fight as a 'one team' and preparing in a consistent direction, I think the results were better than expected."
Coach Kim explained, "Vietnam, like Korea, is also important in 'Tingkam' (affection)," and that he approached the players by building friendship and trust based on his affection.
Like his own brother, he paid special attention to communication, such as joking, touching, and matching tactics through meetings with players without hesitation.
Coach Kim's dance ceremony, which became a hot topic after confirming his victory in the second round of the final in Bangkok, Thailand on the 6th, is not irrelevant to such "brother leadership."
Coach Kim laughed, saying, "I should be a 'Tiger Teacher' now, but I couldn't help it because I begged the players to dance if they won."
His biggest difficulty so far has been not spending much time with the players.
Usually, if a national team member is called up five days before a match, it takes one to two days to adjust conditions of the players. As such, it would have been difficult to identify the players or convey Kim's tactics and philosophy to the players as they only have one to two days to prepare for the match.
In such a situation, former coach Park Hang-seo's advice was a great help to him.
Coach Kim said, "Coach Park was able to quickly grasp and adapt to the players because he informed them of their characteristics and personalities, human relationships between players, and background from their background."
"Coach Park also told me the local weather and atmosphere when I went to away games in Singapore, the Philippines and Laos," he said. "I talked to him on the phone after the victory and encouraged him to 'do a great job.'"
"Because coach Park did well, I was able to come to Vietnam, and I also have Park's stake in this victory," he said, adding, "I think I should improve and work harder because I have to do well so that the Korean leader can play an active role in Vietnam."
With the Vietnamese people's expectations rising to the fullest after winning the championship, head coach Kim responded carefully to his future goals. 메이저사이트
"Many Southeast Asian teams are recruiting naturalized or dual national players," he said, pointing out that all teams can be competitors in addition to the current "Big Four of Southeast Asia" (Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia) as each country's power changes every year.
Coach Kim stressed, "If we want to dream of going to the World Cup finals in the future, I, the national team, and the association (Vietnam Football Association) should also try to follow this trend of the times."