Chosun - Philippe Troussier, the coach of
Qatar’s national soccer team who lead Japan's national soccer team during
the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, offered himself as the next coach of the
Korean national soccer team.
The Japanese sports newspaper Nikkan Sports reported Monday that Troussier
made clear his intention to replace Humberto Coelho in a written statement
submitted to the Korea Football Association (KFA) through an agent.
Troussier asserted in the written form submitted to the KFA that “I know
better about the Korean national soccer team than anyone else. I am
well-qualified, therefore, to be the next coach.”
According to Nikkan Sports, Troussier volunteered to coach Korea’s national
soccer team because of his personal ambition to lead a country that can make
it to the World Cup finals. Troussier promoted a project that would have
naturalized three Brazil soccer stars and added them onto the roster of
Qatar’s national soccer team. The plan failed, however, due to FIFA
restrictions. The newspaper reported that Troussier lost interest in Qatar's
national soccer team after that.
Troussier, who lead Nigeria and Japan to the World Cup finals in 1998 and
the 2002, is showing interest in a Korean team that has a bigger possibility
of entering the World Cup finals than Qatar. Qatar was successively defeated
in the second round of Asian qualifiers by Iran and Jordan; its chances of
making the World Cup finals are close to nil.
