Former Jeonbuk boss Kim Sang-sik tapped to lead Vietnamese national team

Kim will be the second Korean manager to lead Vietnam after Park Hang-seo, who elevated Vietnamese football to a significantly higher level.

A picture of Kim Sang-sik shared on the Vietnam Football Federation's official Facebook account on Friday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Former Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors manager Kim Sang-sik has been appointed to lead the Vietnamese senior and U-23 national football teams, the Vietnam Football Federation announced Friday.

Kim has signed a contract to manage the teams through March 2026, the VFF announced in a statement posted to its official Facebook account on Friday, translated into English using Google Translate.

Kim replaces Philippe Troussier, who was sacked in March after an unimpressive run during which he failed to lead Vietnam to the knockout stage of the AFC Asian Cup in January.

Kim will be the second Korean manager to lead Vietnam after Park Hang-seo, who saw unprecedented success with the Southeast Asian side during his five-year spell. He resigned last year.

During Park's five years at the helm of Vietnam's senior and U-23 national teams, he not only won the AFF Suzuki Cup with the national team and two South Asian Games with the U-23 team, but he elevated Vietnamese football to a significantly higher level, bringing up the country’s FIFA ranking from around No. 130 to the low 90s.

Kim, 47, started his coaching career at Jeonbuk, serving as an assistant coach from 2014 to 2020 and working as manager from 2021 to May 2023. There, he won the 2021 K League 1 season and 2022 Korean FA Cup — now called the Korea Cup.

He resigned from the manager position in the early days of the 2023 K League 1 season after facing criticism for a poor start to the campaign.

Kim will make his Vietnamese senior team manager debut on June 6 in a 2026 World Cup qualifier against the Philippines.

Vietnam is in third place in Group F of the second round of qualifiers, where the top two teams from each group of four reach the third round and qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.

Vietnam has three points with one win and three losses as of Sunday, putting them four points behind second-place Indonesia with two matches remaining for all four teams in Group F.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]