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South Korea hires new soccer coach
Jo Bonfrere, a Dutchman who led Nigeria to the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, was hired Friday as coach of South Korea's national team.
"A provisional contract was signed with Bonfrere on June 17 and he is scheduled to come to South Korea on June 23 to take over the national soccer team," the Yonhap news agency quoted the Korean Soccer Federation as saying in a statement. The association said Bonfrere, 58, was hired to coach the South Korean team until the end of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Further details were not released. Nigeria struggled to pay Bonfrere before he was fired in 2001 after a string of poor results in qualifying matches for the 2002 World Cup. South Korea also was interested in Bruno Metsu, who coached Senegal's national team in the 2002 World Cup, in which South Korea made the semifinals under Dutchman Guus Hiddink. Bonfrere will replace Portugal's Humberto Coelho, who took over the national team in March 2003, but resigned in May after criticism for the team's poor performance. Coelho replaced Hiddink. The next big event for South Korea is the Asian Cup finals in China next month. |
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