I appointed Park Tae-ha as the 13th coach. He is the first one-club man in Pohang's history. He has a two-year contract period," the Pohang team announced on Sunday.
Park, who debuted as a professional player in 1991, is an original one-club man who retired after playing in Pohang until 2001. During Park's career, Pohang achieved one K-League victory (1992), one FA Cup victory (1996), and two AFC Champions League wins (1996-1997, 1997-1998).
Park, who has been a key player in Pohang since he won the best 11 midfielder category in the K-League in 1992, scored 46 goals and 37 assists in 261 matches in nine seasons excluding his mandatory military service, earning him the nickname "solver" from Pohang fans. From 1998 to 2000, he devoted himself to his team as a captain.
Park started his career as a coach at Pohang in 2005 after his retirement. In 2007, he led Pohang to the K-League title with Farias as a coach. From the following year to 2011, he served as a coach and head coach for the Korean national team. In 2012, he helped the team win the K-League title as the head coach of FC Seoul.
Coach Park, who took charge of Yanbian in China's top-tier league in 2015, led his team, which suffered from relegation in the previous year, to win the top-tier league and promote his team to the Chinese Super League. He then led Yanbian until 2018 and the Chinese women's national B team until 2019, leaving a mark on the Chinese soccer community as well.
Coach Park, who took over as chairman of the Korea Professional Football Federation's technical committee in 2020, has been studying the latest trends in soccer tactics at the K-League Technical Committee (TSG). For the past two years, he has been passionate as chairman of the technical committee, meeting and interviewing coaches of each K-League team during winter training and contributing columns on portal sites.
"Pohang is a meaningful place for me. I've never forgotten about Pohang since I first joined the club," Park said. "I'm honored and glad to be appointed as a coach like this. I'll do my best to prepare for Pohang's soccer."