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| Former national football team Shin Tae-yong waves at Incheon International Airport on Thursday as he left Korea to sign a contract with Indonesian national team. / Yonhap |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Shin Tae-yong, former coach of the national football team, will sign a contract on Saturday with Indonesia to lead their national teams.
Under the deal, he will be heading Indonesia's national teams for the FIFA World Cup, Tokyo Olympics and U-23 and U-20.
He said his priorities will be placed on the U-20 World Cup team. Indonesia will be the host country of the 2021 U-20 World Cup.
Indonesia's national football team for the Olympics was eliminated in the qualifiers and its team for the FIFA World Cup also had lost five consecutive games in the qualifiers.
"Indonesian football authorities want me to fully focus on the U-20 World Cup team as they will be playing on their home soil," Shin told reporters at Incheon International Airport, Thursday. He left Korea that day to sign a deal in Indonesia. "They also talked about Suzuki Cup. They are ambitious."
Once signed, he will lead the teams for three years, starting January.
According to him, Indonesia initially offered him a "3+2" contract, an offer he rejected. "I told them both of us had better work hard for three years and then we will see what happens after that," he said.
Four Korean coaches will join the Indonesian football teams to assist Shin.
Shin, 49, led Korea's national football team until the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. He was replaced with Paolo Bento of Portugal.
Shin reportedly has received calls from football clubs in Japan and China to serve as their coach.
"Working as a coach for Chinese or Japanese football clubs will be a lot better option than this if I think of only my personal gain," he said. "But I chose to work with the national team of Indonesia because I have experience as a national team coach, so I have expertise in it. I thought it would be valuable if I use my past experience and knowhow to lead a team, although its overall competitiveness and performance are lower than that of Korea. At the moment, I have some expectation about my job in Indonesia, although I don't know how much I can do and how effectively I can teach them."
Shin said he would like to lift the Indonesian football team to the next level, just as Korean coach Park Hang-seo did for Vietnam.
"Mr. Park did a lot to improve Korea's image in Vietnam with his leadership. He created a Korea craze in Southeast Asia. If it wasn't for him, I think Indonesia would have searched for other foreign coaches, not me," he said. "I think Indonesia would have been encouraged to pick a Korean coach for their national team because of him."
