“Cha Boom” Came Back in Five Years

“It was a really hard process to come here. But I am really proud of returning to the soccer field.”

Fifty-year-old Cha Bum-keun, known as “Cha Boom,” came back to the domestic soccer field after five years. The smile never disappeared from his face from start to finish.

There was an official meeting of Suwon Samsung coaching staff at the grand banquet hall of the Suwon World Cup Stadium on December 22. He showed up as the second head coach of Suwon Samsung, in five years and six months after he left the domestic stage as the 1998 World Cup national team head coach. He was filled with emotion.

“Soccer is the one thing I do well. So I worked hard and then I came here. I have always been proud of playing soccer and I also will be from now on.”

Cha told players, “Soccer players are like farmers. Let’s do our best, keeping in mind that we will reap as much as we sweat.” After that he directed the first afternoon training session at the Kiheung exclusive training center. His conviction is, “Discipline always should be thorough.”

Cha brought in 35-year-old Marco Pezzaivoli, who was the German Karlsruher SC coach, 45-year-old Cho Byung-deuk as goalkeeper coach, Seo Jung-won as playing trainer and Lee Im-saeng as the trainer to establish the “Cha Bum-keun squad.” Cha plans to start the squad’s first training camp at Namhae Gyeongnam early next year and have another drill camp in Europe in February in a bid to prepare for next season.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com