Gu Ja-cheol, former national team player turned football administrator [Newsis]
Gu Ja-cheol, former national team player turned football administrator [Newsis]

Former national team player and football administrator Gu Ja-cheol has delivered a sharp critique of Korean football, pointing to the collapse of the youth development system as a central concern.

Speaking Sunday on SPOTV's sports program "Spo Time Machine," Gu said, "Over the past 10 to 20 years, I think Korea has advanced its system by about 10 percent, while Japan has done 90 or even 110 percent out of 100."

"As someone who works in football administration and wants to stay in the game, I keep asking: who is going to fill the void left by the past 20 years?" he said. "The people trying to fix things now aren't starting from zero — they're starting from a deficit."

Gu said the pipeline of Korean players breaking into top European leagues is drying up. "Fewer and fewer players are making it to the Bundesliga, and next season there will be none at all in the Premier League," he said. "We're only holding on right now because of Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae and Lee Jae-sung. It's really serious."

He said a single phrase — "youth football is about the basics" — is damaging Korean football. "Youth coaches only want to drill fundamentals. That's the worst possible approach. You have to teach players how to read space and make decisions," he said.

"In Germany, even seven-year-olds are coached to constantly assess situations and make judgments," Gu said. "The gap that opens up between someone trained that way from age seven and someone who only ever practiced the basics is wide beyond comparison."

He said Korean players have suffered as a result. "Over the past 10 years, players' decision-making has been too poor, too slow — their judgment can't keep up with the pace of the game," he said. "It's because everyone goes to training and just works on fundamentals. They don't know what they should be doing or when."

Gu called on Korean football to undertake a thorough self-examination, warning that failure to act immediately would have lasting consequences. "If Korean football does not begin a comprehensive overhaul right now to prepare for the next 10 years, the reality we face in five or 10 years will be even more devastating," he said.


mss@heraldcorp.com