COACH KIM EUN-JOONG “I WANT TO FIND A COLOR FOR SUWON FC AND HAVE A LIVING PLAYER”

Finding a new team color with ‘living players’.That’s the challenge for head coach Kim Eun-jung, who will take over the reins of Suwon FC in the 2024 season .Appointed as the head coach of Suwon FC in December last year, Kim has been conducting the first winter camp in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, since the 14th.When he met with Yonhap News Agency at the Gyeongju Smart Air Dome on the 25th, he was looking at the players with sharp eyes and focusing on the season plan.Kim, who wrote the myth of the quartet at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup by playing ‘silly football’ against the world’s top teams, said his top priority is to find Suwon FC’s ‘color’. “It is important to first find the color that suits our team according to the composition of the players, and to prepare and attack according to the opponent’s strategy,” Kim said. “No matter how good the content is, if we cannot win the game, the fans will not enjoy it in the end. After reaching the quarterfinals at the FIFA U-20 World Cup, Kim traveled around the K League as a member of the Korean Professional Football Association’s Technical Study Group (TSG) and learned firsthand how top teams prepare for matches and how they play their opponents.

After speaking with Suwon FC head coach Choi Soon-ho and realizing that their soccer philosophies were aligned, Kim began his first professional coaching career with Suwon FC .Kim believes that civic clubs in particular need to nurture their players. “We can’t buy the players we want for a lot of money like corporate clubs. We need to nurture young players who show promise,” he said .However, it is necessary to be patient and wait rather than pursue immediate results. “If you take the time to nurture them, they will become important resources in a few years, and the team will receive strength,” Kim said. “If you take the time to nurture them, they will become a resource in a few years, and the team will be stronger.” Kim’s experience as a player-coach at Daejeon Hana Citizens in 2014 and as a coach at Belgian fourth division team AFC Thunbiz from 2015 to 2017 led him to assist Kim Hak-bum as the Olympic team coach from 2017 and as the U-20 national team coach from 2022, where he spent most of his time working with young players.

Understanding through dialog is one of Kim’s keys to guiding “today’s players. “I can’t lead the team in the same way I used to,” Kim says. We need to make them understand our direction and let them follow it naturally, even if it means saying some provocative things,” he says .”I’ve been playing professionally for 18 years,” Kim said, adding that he has faith in veteran players such as Lee Yong-soo and Yoon Beom-garam, who “definitely have a stronger sense of responsibility than younger players, so they do a good job on their own, and I respect them. “As Kim has been with the national team for so long, Suwon FC has several of his students, including team core Lee Seung-woo, Jung Seung-won, and Kang Sang-yoon .Kang Sang-yoon, in particular, was a player Kim had been watching closely enough to ask the club to sign him.” He’s one of the resources we need in 슬롯게이밍 our team. He’s a player who continues to grow,” Kim said.