Kim Gi-dong appointed as FC Seoul manager

Kim Gi-dong has been appointed as the new manager of FC Seoul, the club announced Thursday.

A picture of manager Kim Gi-dong wearing an FC Seoul scarf shared on the club's official Facebook account on Thursday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Kim Gi-dong has been appointed as the new manager of FC Seoul, the club announced Thursday.

Kim joins FC Seoul after leading the Pohang Steelers from 2019 through December this year, during which he won the Korean FA Cup once in 2023 and managed a runner-up finish at the AFC Champions League in 2021.

He led the Pohang side to the knockout stage of this season’s Champions League that will begin in February next year, but still left to join FC Seoul.

FC Seoul’s appointment of Kim comes as the capital side is looking to redeem themselves next season from last season’s failure.

The club struggled overall and finished in seventh-place on the 12-team table in the 2023 season, prompting former manager An Ik-soo to resign in the second half of the campaign.

Interim manager Kim Jin-kyu led the team until the end of the season.

Newly-appointed manager Kim Gi-dong is keen to bring the old glory days of FC Seoul back.

“I thank FC Seoul for choosing me, and I will do my best to prove that [the club] made the right call,” Kim was quoted as saying in an FC Seoul Instagram post on Thursday. “I think my role is to recreate FC Seoul’s glory days. I will work to meet all the expectations.”

FC Seoul, who have won the K League six times, have not won since 2016 and have also fallen short of a top-three finish in recent years, coming ninth in 2020, seventh in 2021 and ninth again in 2022, before a seventh-place finish this year.

The 2024 K League will kick off in spring next year, with the exact schedule yet to be announced.

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