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Coach Hong Myung-bo, 55, said he would never be a coach of the national team. Players who are considered the strongest in history, low salary, term guarantee, and opportunity to recover honor. Amazing conditions that he cannot shake off must have driven his will to challenge.

The Korea Football Association officially announced on the 7th that Hong Myung-bo has been appointed as the next coach of the Korean national soccer A team. Lee Im-saeng, technical director of the Korea Football Association, said in a briefing on the appointment of Hong Myung-bo. today at the Korea Football Association's soccer center in Sinmun-ro, Seoul, "I met Hong Myung-bo at his house on the 5th after returning from a K-League match. I asked Hong Myung-bo several times to take charge of the A-team, and I was informed that I would take charge of the national team at 9 a.m. the next day." It took only 10 hours to receive and accept the offer.

There were two final candidates for coach Hong Myung-bo, but the reason why they picked Hong was because they did not have enough time until the third Asian qualifying round for the North Korea-China World Cup in September. In addition, it was hard to say that they made a bigger achievement than coach Hong Myung-bo. Above all, they did not have enough time to properly reflect their philosophy on the Korean national team.

Coach Hong Myung-bo drew a line on the rumor that the national team coach will be appointed, saying, "My position is the same, so fans don't have to worry so much." In addition, he was adamant, saying, "If the Korea Football Association brings someone with better experience, experience and performance than me, my name will not come out naturally."

However, why did he suddenly change his mind to head the national team after meeting director Lee Im-saeng on the night of the 5th? Coach Hong Myung-bo has yet to make an official statement. Instead, director Lee Im-saeng talked with coach Hong about the entire final negotiation process.

According to Lee, he returned to Korea on Saturday after meeting with two foreign coaches, Gus Foyet and David Wagner, in Europe. Upon returning to Korea, he visited Hong's house at 11 p.m. and held "midnight talks." What were the conditions that made Hong move?

The first step is to ensure his term in office. Coach Hong Myung-bo will continue as coach even after the North Korea-China-U.S. World Cup that will take place in June 2026. He will lead the national team up to the Asian Cup that will take place in Saudi Arabia in January 2027. "Rather than evaluating the results for a short period of time, I wanted to give sufficient time to secure connection between the A team and the national team by age group," said Lee Im-saeng. In addition, he proposed recruiting at least two European coaches to complement his tactic, which Hong accepted.

The second is "annual salary," which was significantly raised to the level of foreign coaches. "There is a salary gap between a foreign coach and a Korean coach, and I asked the association proudly for this part as well. We cannot reveal the amount of money, but now we have the mindset that Korean coaches should be treated as much as foreign coaches," said Lee Im-saeng.

Besides these ostensible conditions, Coach Hong Myung-bo seems to be aiming for a "restoration of fame." Hong, who led the team to bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, was under fire two years later when he was eliminated from the group stage with one draw and two losses as coach at the 2014 Brazil World Cup. One of the reasons for his failure was that he was deployed as a firefighter just a year before the World Cup was held, and he did not have enough time to form his own team.