with E-Land's new sponsor of a ridiculous amount and rumors about UAE's Billionaire investing in our domestic league, this made me question, if you were the head of a K-League Classic club would you invest in a player or a manager..? hypothetically, lets say you were given a handsome amount of $$ or ₩₩ (for arguments sake: $5mil per year or ₩5billion) BUT on the condition that you could only spend it on one individual. given the dynamics of K-League Classic, would you rather invest that$₩ on the best player that figure could afford or invest it in the best gaffer/manager?
I would get Messi with my hypothetical money to attract people. Edit: but for real K-league should try to attract some rich ass southeast asian billionaires to fund the league.
with my given hypothetical money, Messi is unattainable. someone "well-known to football fans" but realistically affordable within the budget allocated. the only reason why I ask this is J-League and C-League has had their share of superstars: Anelka (C-League)/Lippi(C-League), Forlan (J-League)/Wenger(J-League/albeit it was before his prime) and it's about time that K-League has a marquee player or manager.
given the situations he honestly might be a good candidate in the late stages of his career I know this is a stupid question but you wouldn't believe how many K-League scouts actually check our forums/discussions. consider this an opportunity to throw out potential candidates
ohhhh okay I'll get someone well known and good looking, like Cristi...wait nevermind. I'll get Torres when he's 32.
Did you know...Mandzukic & Ibrahimovic were close to coming to K league before (well actually Ibrahimovic one is close to a joke) In 2007 Farias wanted Mandzukic but couldnt afford him & he moved to Dinamo Zagreb from NK Zagreb . Cho Kwang-rae says: We offered Ibra a contract (with a ridiculous, joke of an offer) & Malmo laughed it off. Anyang bought Andre instead. To believe Cho Kwang-rae or not to believe him...
Im going to throw a controversial name. Pepe. Good player (relatively), and a hugeasshole who will bring enough passion, hate, and controversy to k-league, which is badly needed. Good player is nice but being talented, and classy isnt going to draw much attendance, even someone like patrice evra. The league needs a player where home supporters love him and rest of the league despises him
okay I have a list of players that I think will fit my bill (good looking, well known, and relatively old) older Mario Gomez, Robinho, Pirlo, Alonso, older Marchisio and for the Asian quota I have Ansarifard the Iranian international (not as well known and old but still). Apparently Eland hires good looking footballers so if they are interested they should consider my list. I know this one Eland worker coming to this forum.
Like david beckhams good looks helped mls? Yeah ok. controversy, despiseful is whats needed. If vinnie jones of 80s/90s can come back from the past and join the kleague, that would have been amusing to watch
nah trust me, we use them as the face of K-league and it'll attract girls. Guys be like omg there's a lot of girls going to the stadium let's go there as well. Then huge crowd. Also Pepe is a defender, and defenders are boring to watch. If you want someone controversial they should get Joey Barton. or they get someone that's big headed or big nosed in this case, Ibra. He's a superstar with a superstar personality. He's pretty old too so shouldn't be that expensive.
I know the league could use more excitement/publicity, but I'm not sure that a retired superstar is the best way to do it. Has that actually helped the development of domestic players in Japan/China/US? I don't really think so. And what happened to NY Cosmos' crowds after they lost their superstars? Teams like Suwon and Pohang have shown that it's possible to draw crowds without using a big name player as a crutch. It's a more sustainable way. (to answer the OP's question, I would say neither – spend it on advertising and such. But if I had to choose one, it would be a manager)
its not about development. 3 + 1 foreigner rule isnt going to change so it wont have any impact on development. Purpose is to bring excitement to the league, which is crucial. Suwon and pohang might get decent enough attendance but almost everywhere else, its very embarassing. Even suwon have seena bit ofa decline the last 2-3 years, same with fc seoul. K-league do need a spark at this point. i think kleague own exclusive tv network would help interest but that network would be in the red for years. Just wouldnt be good for profits. Kleague needs to better establish community feel. Gwangju for a big city only draws 3k, especially when its such a historic city with the massacre and being politically liberal. Kleague marketing needs to connect with their fanbase in the community level
K-league teams should have identity that are shared in the community. Gwangju should be a pretty politically liberal club that chant liberal things and hate on Busan or something. Goyang Hi FC tried to secular themselves to be more inclusive or something but they should be more Christian. Protestant makes 18% of Korea's population, they should try to appeal to them and be the team that represent the Christian population. Catholics and Buddhist should make a soccer team and have a 3way old firm.
So leaving aside development then... Using a retired superstar only works for a few years. It's not a sustainable approach. And the money could be spent more efficiently on marketing I think.
Hence my excitement when Jeonbuk's new owner expressed his intentions of signing a Vietnamese player to attract the local Vietnamese community. I don't think Jeonbuk will be able to implement it this year since they already used up their 3+1 foreigner rule. Even if they planned on signing a Vietnamese player, who do you think they have in mind? I'm not sure if MLS' Lee Nguyen would count towards the AFC slot since he's been capped by the US. Wouldn't be a bad signing though, he exploded last season for NE Revs. Wouldn't stop the local Vietnamese population from supporting him either. Busan has abysmal numbers in attendance but a large population. There's a ton of Uzbekistani and Filipino expats and I don't see why they're not tapping into that market. Signing a Filipino would be pointless since they don't have any notable players but I'm sure they could find a good Uzbekistani player. If you look at the most capped Uzbeks, 3 out of the 4 played in Korea at one point: T. Kapadze (Incheon), S. Djeparov (Seongnam/Seoul/Ulsan), A. Geynrikh (Suwon). The third most capped wouldn't count since he's a goalkeeper thus ineligible to play in Korea.
TBH, $5 million per season is not much, but having to work within the confines of this hypothetical budget and condition (only single individual)... Managers/Coaches I would bring to my K-League Club: (in no particular order of preference) 1. Ciro Ferrara: reportedly was part of KFA's managerial shortlist after HMB resigned. In an interview Ferrara stated that he was quite interested in working in Korean football (how much BS this interview contained I do not know). He has experience managing Italian youth national teams and Serie A clubs. 2. Sergio Farias: Quite successful with Steelers, and can irritate Steelers fans (maybe). He has experience managing a K-league club and lots of club management in Brazil. 3. Moacir Pereira: Managed Daegu for a period of time, and has a lot of experience in Brazil. Also has his own website. 4. Senol Gunes: At least for old times' sake. You can't ignore his resume. 5. Bert Van Marwijik: Yeah yeah. Just let him work in Europe and give him enough salary to compensate for taxation. We have telephones. 6. David Moyes: Managed to establish Everton as a solid club in Premier League with limited budget. In hindsight he wasn't that bad at Man. Utd. 7. Niko Kovač: His Joseph-Gordon-Levittesque look can confuse Korean fangirls to buy matchday tickets. Plus he can probably bring some good E. European players with good 가성비. 8. Stephen Keshi: Quite impressive string of results with Nigeria. Plus he can be controversial 9. Andre Villas Boas: His Zenit salary is probably much more attractive than $5 mil, but if I can somehow bring him, he is full package. Great coach, can teach Korean managers a lesson or two, good looking to bring Korean ladies to the track-ridden stadium. 10. Malky Mackay: He can convince KBK to get his ass out of Championship and also bring some controversy.
I dont think 1 manager would do much to bring good attendance but if there was anyone close, it was senol gunes. but gunes had the pleasure of both ki and lcy at the same time, not to mention the best foreign k-leaguer of all-time and Montenegrin international in Dejan
The pony-tailed hero of Sangam. Also FCS had Adi back then. and PCY imagine this FC Seoul lineup: Dejan YIL-------Molina (in-form)-----LCY HDS------KSY Adi------KJK-----KJY--------CDR KYD
Now that dejan is in china, i really miss him in our league even if im not a seoul fan. He was such a talented goalscorer and did a lot of other things well. I think andre moritz is going to be an excellent player for pohang but hes a cam...i fear seeing a talented foreign striker in kleague wont happen for awhile now
Rafael Costa was supposed to be Dejan's successor...................... The Ulsan player and Dejan's compatriot Filip Kasalica, reportedly chose to come to K-league based on Dejan's advice.
http://forums.bigsoccer.com/members/hanul21.53533/ How about spending the 5 million dollar on a staff member (except head coach/manager)? Perhaps 5 million is too much, but any amount that will attract the best in the field. Some positions in which I would consider spending 5 mil to bring a world class individual. 1. Player Scout (for first team recruitment) 2. Youth player Scout/director of youth development 3. Team Analyst/ Opposition analyst 4. Tactical assistant (maybe manager can focus on other things such as locker room morale) 5. Marketing director 6. Technical director 7. Head therapist/ Team doctor 8. Head nutritionist/ team chef 9. Team psychologist?
I would like to share some players I have been considering from the AFC region, for the sake of this hypothetical premise (of the original question). On the question of signing a single individual player for my K-league club... (given the $5 mil limit) AFC Players 1. Omar Abdulrahman (the hair will get the attention, his flair will get more attention) 2. Sardor Rashidov (Korean fangirls might start calling him "꽃미남" or something lol. 3. Keisuke Honda 4. Shinji Kagawa 5. Sardar Azmoun (pretty cute looking, talented) 6. Alireza Jahanbahksh (Korean ladies will go crazy for this guy I think)