Of the top seven high-paid coaches participating in the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup, only Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany), who leads the Korean national team, is the only one alive and drawing attention.
Klinsmann is set to play Jordan in the Asian Cup semifinals at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Alayyan, Qatar, at midnight on the 7th.
The two teams, which had only a 2-2 draw in the second Group E match on the 20th of last month, will have a rematch of fate on the threshold of the final.
If South Korea defeated Jordan to reach the final, the prevailing expectation was that the Korea-Japan match would take place. This was because Iran, which was Japan’s opponent in the quarterfinals, was not complete.
Iran failed to play against Japan after its main gun Mehdi Taremi (FC Porto) was sent off in the match against Syria in the last 16.
However, Iran, not Japan, advanced to the semifinals. Japan scored the first goal, but conceded the equalizer early in the second half. Moreover, it allowed an upset goal right before the end of the match, and was eliminated early in the quarterfinals, and the match between Korea and Japan was ultimately canceled.
Coach Klinsmann is drawing attention as even Japan was eliminated.
It is not because of the rivalry between Korea and Japan, but because he is the only one who survived among the high-salary coaches of the tournament.
The Qatari media Alcas revealed the salaries of the top seven coaches from 24 countries that participated in the Asian Cup ahead of the opening of the Asian Cup. Klinsmann ranked second with 2.2 million dollars.
The top-ranked player was Italian coach Roberto Mancini. He is said to be paid 22 million U.S. dollars, which is 10 times more than Coach Klinsmann.
However, Mancini lost to South Korea in the round of 16 and had to pack immediately at the start of the tournament.
Third place is Paulo Bento, a former coach of the Korean national team who leads the United Arab Emirates. He was reportedly paid $1.9 million (W2.5 billion), but dropped out of the round of 16 after losing to Tajikistan, his first Asian Cup appearance.
Syria’s coach Héctor Couper ($1.8 million, 24 musicians) ranked fourth in the annual salary rankings, and Juan Antonio Picci ($1.6 million, 2.1 billion won), who leads Bahrain, ranked fifth.
All of them packed early, losing to Iran and Japan in the round of 16, respectively.
Iraqi coach Jesús Casas, who finished seventh with $1.1 million (about 1.5 billion won), also fell to his knees in the first game of the tournament without surpassing Jordan.
Japanese coach Hajime Moriyasu, who was ranked sixth with $1.2 million (about 1.6 billion won), succeeded in surviving in the round of 16 with coach Klinsmann.
However, he lost against Iran and was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
With Moriyasu also leaving Qatar, Klinsmann became the only surviving head coach among the seven top-paid players.
Since taking office, coach Klinsmann has not received full support from fans due to controversy over his business and overseas trip and unclear tactics and strategies. 마카오카지노
However, he is only two steps away from surviving alone among high-salary competitive coaches and achieving Korea’s goal of winning the championship for the first time in 64 years.
Attention is focusing on whether coach Klinsmann will be able to reach the top and get the final performance worthy of his high salary.