Pohang Steelers name club legend Park Tae-ha as new head coach

Pohang Steelers announced Friday they have named club legend Park Tae-ha as their new head coach.

The K League 1 club said Park, 55, has agreed to a two-year contract. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Park spent his entire playing career with Pohang, from 1991 to 2001. During his time, Pohang won the 1992 K League title, the 1996 FA Cup and captured consecutive Asian Football Confederation Champions League titles in 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 seasons.

Park served as team captain from 1998 to 2000. He registered 46 goals and 37 assists in 261 matches.

"The city of Pohang means so much to me. Ever since I first joined the team, this place has always been on my mind," Park said. "It's an honor to be head coach of this club."

After his playing days ended, Park began his coaching career with Pohang as an assistant. They won the K League title in 2007 with Park on the bench alongside head coach Sergio Farias.

From 2008 to 2011, Park was an assistant coach for the South Korean men's national team. He returned to the K League in 2012 as the top assistant for FC Seoul, and they won the K League title that same year.

Park took his coaching talent to China in 2015, and led Yanbian Funde to promotion from the second division to the top division in 2015.

Since 2020, Park had been the technical director at the Korea Professional Football League.

Pohang brought Park back to the coaching scene after their former bench boss Kim Gi-dong left for FC Seoul this week. Under Kim this year, Pohang finished runners-up to Ulsan Hyundai FC in the K League 1 and won their fifth FA Cup title. (Yonhap)