"Korea Football Association employees are passionately preparing to develop MIK (Korean Football Technical Philosophy Made In Korea)."

Football team coach Hong Myung-bo observed the match between Jang Hoon High School and Dongbuk High School in the 2025 early national high school football league at Jang Hoon High School in Seoul on the afternoon of the 4th. Also present were head coach Park Geon-ha, coach Kim Jin-kyu, goalkeeper coach Yang Young-min, and other coaching staff of the national team.

From January to February, Coach Hong traveled across various European countries to assess key players like Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Lee Kang-in (PSG), and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), as well as young talents such as Bae Jun-ho (Stoke City), Oh Hyun-kyu (Genk), and Yang Hyun-jun (Celtic). He had a busy schedule leading up to the March A-match (March 20 against Oman, March 25 against Jordan).

Even before the match started, the atmosphere was abuzz with excitement. Students flocked to Coach Hong, who visited Jang Hoon High School along with the national team coaching staff to watch the game.

Students at Jang Hoon High School took photos of Coach Hong with their phones and cheered for him by chanting his name.

Feeling the pressure from the criticism surrounding the national team’s poor performance in March's A-match, Coach Hong was uplifted by the enthusiastic support from the teenage fans.

This year's high school league started late due to changes in budget allocation and other reasons.

To support the coaches and parents who may have experienced stress due to this delay, Coach Hong and the national team coaching staff visited the venue.

This visit also serves to verify whether the unified development model of Korean football, MIK, established by the Korea Football Association last year, is being properly implemented in the youth sector.

During halftime, Coach Hong met with the press and emphasized, “These players need to grow well for Korean football to become stronger. This is a very important age group. There’s only a 1 to 2-year difference between players in today’s game and those like Yang Min-hyuk (Queens Park Rangers) and Bae Jun-ho (Stoke City) who are in Europe. If these players grow well and become good players, the national team will also strengthen.”

He explained, "The opening was delayed, and the Korea Football Association also had a gap in operations. However, the employees handling the MIK project are passionately preparing."

Having experienced the roles of age-group national team coach and executive director at the Korea Football Association, Coach Hong has emphasized the importance of establishing a long-term direction and system for Korean football.

Having personally experienced the significant impact of active youth talent discovery on the development of Korean football and the national team, he has stressed the connection with age-group leaders since his appointment. Last summer, he implemented workshops with over 30 age-group national team coaches, full-time leaders, and instructors from the Korea Football Association. This visit to the high school league venue is part of that same effort.

Coach Hong noted, "Whenever there is a gap in the national team schedule, I try to visit as many venues as possible. I will also go to a K League venue tomorrow," adding, "While I look at players who can be selected for the national team at K League venues, I came here today for a different purpose. Given that the high school league started late, I wanted to offer a little support to our coaches, children, and parents."

In response to a 'joking question' about whether he has discovered any players worth selecting for the June A-match, Coach Hong said, "I see some good players. There will likely be some very talented players in the future," smiling brightly.

He also mentioned, "Much depends on whether talented players can grow with good character and attitude. I hope some of these standout players continue to develop well."

Coach Hong is a graduate of Dongbuk High School. Throughout the first half, Dongbuk High School, which was struggling, managed to score a goal at the last minute with a fortuitous long-range shot that went over the goalkeeper. The playing styles of Jang Hoon and Dongbuk High School were completely different that day. Jang Hoon High School, with its third-year students, played a build-up style while Dongbuk High School, consisting only of second-year students, focused on defense. However, they fought fiercely like a raw football game.

The youth football leagues should have kicked off in early March, but the start was significantly delayed due to not receiving government funding needed for operations. The youth leagues are run with approval and financial support from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, but due to the failure to implement follow-up measures from last year’s audit results of the Korea Football Association, funds were to be suspended, leading to disruption in the youth leagues.

Students have been sacrificed. As criticism within and outside the football community grew, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism finally issued subsidies of 1.867778 billion won for the operation of youth leagues and lower grades on the 18th of last month. Although this amount is less than half of the total project budget of about 4.3 billion won, the players who had only been training finally got to play matches.

Meanwhile, Coach Hong Myung-bo reflected on the league matches, saying, "When I was young, if we didn’t reach the semifinals in the national competition, we could no longer pursue football due to the environment.” He added, “Now that leagues exist, it offers players continuous growth opportunities. I think this is a very positive development."

[Photo] Provided by KFA.

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