Cheonan City FC coach Kim Tae-wan speaking at the K-League winter training media camp held at the Namhae Community Welfare Center on the 13th [provided by the Korea Professional Football League.
Coach Kim Tae-wan, who leads professional soccer K-League 2 Cheonan City FC, is a leader who cannot be separated from the military team ‘Sangmu’.
After finishing his career as a player at Daejeon Citizen in 2001, he joined after receiving a leadership offer from Sangmu, who was preparing to participate in the K-League based in Gwangju the following year, and has continued to work with him as a coach for 20 years.
He achieved achievements such as winning the K-League 2, promotion, and advancing to the top split of the K-League 1 at Sangmu. Nicknames such as ‘Pep Tae-wan’ and ‘Gwanmuldaeola’ (Gwanmuldae + Guardiola) compared to Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City in England, who have a similar shaved head style. also obtained.
Coach Kim, who left his position as managing director at the end of the 2022 season, spent time recharging through activities with the Korea Professional Football League’s Technical Research Group (TSG), and returned as an on-site leader after taking charge of Cheonan this season.
He is taking on the new challenge of forming his own team outside of Sangmu for the first time, and is dreaming of taking a leap forward for Cheonan, the last-place team in K League 2 last season.
Cheonan team during training camp in Chonburi, Thailand in January
Coach Kim, who met on the 13th in Namhae, Gyeongsangnam-do, where Cheonan is undergoing its second winter training camp, said, “When I was on the military team, I didn’t particularly care about what the players ate, but here, I pay attention to many things outside of the game, such as eating and sleeping. I had a good experience. “There is,” he said, laughing.
“I achieved good results and did a lot at Sangmu, but I wanted to prove myself,” he said. “At Sangmu, I want to leverage my experience of bringing in a variety of national team and promising players without foreign players, motivating them, and achieving results.” He said.
He said, “Sangmu mainly had players with proven skills, so it was necessary to refine them a little, but here, there are many players who are just coming up, so it is more difficult to coach them.” “I felt like we were lacking, so I brought in more veteran players, and I expect it to get better,” he said.
In the long term, I accepted the new challenge with the great intention of laying the foundation for Cheonan to become a prestigious club, but in the professional world, I cannot ignore the results in front of me.Moreover, Cheonan, which was at the bottom of the league last season, is a team whose top priority is to improve its performance.
Director Kim Tae-wan
Coach Kim mainly reinforced players who could add weight, including veteran defender Lee Woong-hee, who he worked with during his time as Sangmu.
He said, “I expect it will be a difficult season, but I want to climb as high as possible. I will try to build a competitive team and aim for the playoffs.” He said, “I will hit the bottom and climb up with the mind of a challenger.”
He also declared war, saying, “I want to beat every team at least once,” and “I won’t lose lightly or easily.”
When asked about the style of soccer he pursues, ‘happy soccer’, which he used as a keyword during his time as managing director, came first.
Coach Kim said, “First of all, I want the players to have fun. If they dominate the game and win by overwhelming their opponents, they can be happy in that, and the fans can feel it, too.” He added, “When I first came to Cheonan, the atmosphere was a bit rigid, but the atmosphere was a bit rigid, but I hope we can have fun and get results.” “I want to play soccer. To do that, I need to do well, and to do well, I need to work hard,” he urged the players. 스포츠토토맨