[Opinion] Good-Bye, Mr. Advocaat

Dick Advocaat and Guus Hiddink both led the Korean national football team and are Dutch. Although the Korean national football team failed in making it to the semi quarterfinal, nobody blames Dick Advocaat for it. What would have happened if Johannes Bonfrere or Humberto Coelho had coached the national squad? Surely, “Advo” upgraded what Hiddink grew. It is safe to say, Korea has a good chemistry with the Dutch as long as it concerns football.

The Dutch are practical and diligent. “Going Dutch” means that each person eating at a restaurant pays for himself or herself, rather than one person paying for everyone. Dutch are so famous for their hard work that there is even a saying that goes, “God made the world, but the Dutch made the Netherlands.” They are also well known for their resistance against oppression, probably a product of their history marred with foreign invasions and interferences. They protected Jews under Nazi rule and have always welcomed political asylum seekers, which shows their humanistic temperament. These seem to be what Korea and the Netherlands have in common.

The Netherlands is a nation that threw open its door to the world early on. It recognized the potential of the overseas market early on and conducted trade going back and forth, even to Nagasaki of Japan. Jan Janse Weltevree was a Dutch sailor who landed on Jeju Island due to heavy seas in 1626. Later, he was assigned to Hullyeondogam where he was in charge of firearms and was mobilized to fight in the war against the Manchu Qing Empire’s invasion. He was nationalized and got a Korean name, which is Park Yeon. When his compatriots, 36 sailors including Hamel, drifted toward Joseon in 1653, he did interpretation for them. Hamel and his crewmates were treated badly for 13 years in Joseon: they were detained, assaulted, beaten and deported. They even had to beg for food. Later, Hamel managed to escape from Joseon and wrote Hamel`s Journal in which he revealed to the world “how unwilling Joseon is to open up to the outside world.”

At that time, missionaries from the West had already taken root in China, and Japan was trading with Europe. What if Joseon had been awakened to the potential of opening up to the world by Dutch like Hamel and learned from the world? If the good chemistry with the Dutch had been taken advantage of earlier, good fortune like fourth place in the World Cup would have occurred earlier.

“Advo” will leave Korea to take the helm of a Russian football team. At this moment, when we’re about to say good-bye to him, I think of his country, a country in which labor unions rarely stage strikes, a country without religious conflicts and racial discrimination. Adieu, Advo.

Kim Chung-sik, Editorial Writer, skim@donga.com