Jürgen Klinsmann (60) has reopened the already long-running conflict between Son Heung-min (32, Tottenham) and Lee Kang-in (23, PSG).
In an interview with Austria’s Servus TV on Wednesday (Feb. 23), Klinsmann reminisced about his time with the South Korean national team, calling it “fantastic and a great experience.”
Klinsmann was fired in February following a poor Asian Cup performance.
The South Korean squad was one of the strongest in history. The attack was led by Tottenham captain Son Heung-min and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) star Lee Kang-in, while the defense was anchored by world-class defender Kim Min-jae. In addition to these players, there are many others who have played key roles for European clubs, including Hwang Hee-chan, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ top scorer this season, Jung Woo-young, VfB Stuttgart’s No. 10, and Lee Jae-sung, FSV Mainz 05.
Korean soccer was considered to be at its peak.
However, the ‘Klinsmanns’ showed their problems from the first match against Bahrain in the group stage of the tournament. Their performances against Jordan, Malaysia in the second and third rounds, Saudi Arabia in the round of 16, and Australia in the quarterfinals were all disastrous. The quarterfinal match against Jordan was one of the most memorable in Asian soccer history.
“The team had everything it took to make it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and that’s why we wanted to keep doing it,” Klinsmann said, speaking just two months after his dismissal.
“The performance at the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar was the best Korea has had in the last 15 years,” Klinsmann said. But in Korean culture, someone had to take responsibility. 안전놀이터 추천 The players had to move on to the next tournament, so the coaching staff had to take the blame,” he said, adding that he felt his dismissal was unfair.
Klinsmann’s poor performance led him to turn a blind eye to a clash between captain Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in on the eve of the Asian Cup quarterfinals.
Heung-min suffered a finger injury in the collision and had to leave the game with a bandage for a while.
Lee later apologized to Son Heung-min in person and publicly apologized for the conflict at an official training session at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on March 20. This ended the conflict between the two.
However, Klinsmann brought it up again. “A young PSG player said something disrespectful to a Tottenham captain and veteran player. The aftermath of that was the breakdown of the original team,” he recounted.
“I learned Korean for two years, so I knew some words, but I couldn’t understand what the players were saying,” he said. “I learned that in Korean culture, the older person is always right, even if they are wrong.” He also talked about the “age culture” in Korea. It’s as if the ‘older one’ did something wrong during the national team.