Former Portugal defensive midfielder Paulo Bento will be the new coach of the South Korea national football team. Bento replaces Shin Tae-yong whose contract expired following South Korea’s group stage exit at the 2018 World Cup. Drawn in a difficult group, South Korea began their World Cup with a 1-0 loss against Sweden. They then lost 2-0 to Mexico. However, the Koreans defeated reigning champions Germany 2-0 and ended third in their group.
Bento got selected over a shortlist that included former Algeria manager Vahid Halilhodzic and former Atletico Madrid manager Quique Sanchez Flores.
Paulo Bento has a coaching experience of almost 15 years. He began coaching in 2004 shortly after retiring as a player. He coached Sporting CP from 2005-2009, winning four trophies. Bento then became coach of Portugal following the sacking of Carlos Queiroz due to a poor start to the Euro 2012 qualifiers. He guided the team to the semi-finals of Euro 2012. A group stage exit at the 2014 World Cup followed by a 0-1 defeat to Albania in the Euro 2016 qualifiers saw Bento getting the sack.
Before South Korea, Bento’s last coaching assignment was at Chinese club Chongqing Lifan.
Kim Pan-gon, the head of the technical committee of South Korea’s Football Association said, “After reviewing his plans, we believe Bento is a coach who can develop South Korean football if we can support him for four years. His results at Euro 2012 were very good and he is professional, charismatic, passionate and confident.”
Paulo Bento is South Korea’s 8th foreign manager and only the second Portuguese after Humberto Coelho. Coelho was South Korea’s coach from 2003-2004.
Bento’s first match as South Korea’s coach is a friendly against Costa Rica at Goyang next month.
