South Korea boss Hwang has ‘zero managerial ability’, says AFC Champions League record goalscorer Damjanovic
- Hwang Sun-hong will take charge of South Korea’s World Cup qualifiers next month, after Jurgen Klinsmann was axed
- Former Kitchee star Dejan Damjanovic launches scathing attack on Hwang, who he played under at FC Seoul
Former Kitchee striker Dejan Damjanovic has lashed out at new South Korea interim head coach Hwang Sun-hong, accusing his old FC Seoul boss of having “zero managerial ability”.
Hwang has been temporarily promoted from his role as under-23 head coach, and tasked with overseeing two World Cup qualifiers against Thailand next month.
He will have to pick up the pieces of a calamitous AFC Asian Cup finals campaign, after South Korea’s limp semi-final exit to Jordan was overshadowed by reports of a hotel altercation between captain Son Heung-min and young winger Lee Kang-in, which left Tottenham Hotspur player Son with a dislocated finger.
It has been suggested Hwang’s experience of working with the nation’s younger players counted in his favour, as the South Korea Football Association tries to buy time before appointing a permanent successor to Jurgen Klinsmann, whose unhappy 12-month tenure ended last month.
But Damjanovic, who won three K-League titles across two spells with FC Seoul, and is the 42-goal record AFC Champions League scorer, said while Hwang “had good tactical ideas, but his ability to manage the squad was zero”.
Hwang, an ex-national team striker, who represented South Korea in three World Cups, led Seoul to the Korean championship, after taking over midway through the 2016 campaign. The team slipped to fifth the following season, despite Damjanovic’s 16-goal haul.