It has been revealed that German soccer legend Klinsmann, who was "fastly replaced" less than a year after the failure of the Qatar Asian Cup, tried to select a new face for the Korean national team in time for the A-match day in March.
"The Korea Football Association is pushing to join Jens Kastrov, a talented 20-year-old midfielder from Nuremberg," Florian Plattenberg, a reporter from Sky, Germany, reported on social networking services (SNS) on the 24th (Korea time).
Plattenberg, who is known as a correspondent for Kim Min-jae's Bayern Munich team, said, "Klinsman wanted to select Kastrov for the upcoming A-match in March. Andreas Köfke has already contacted us."
Since taking over as the coach of the Korean national team in February last year, Klinsmann has lived in the U.S. and Europe longer than in Korea, citing reasons such as "European inspection." He also ordered the coaches to stay in Europe and check the European leagues, and Köfke, a former South Korean goalkeeper coach who is known to live in Nuremberg as a Nuremberg legend, reportedly checked Castrov himself in September last year.
Klinsmann appointed left-back Park Kyu-hyun for the first time since his inauguration. Yang Hyun-joon (Celtic) and Kim Ji-soo (Brentford) will accompany the team at the Asian Cup, and are also eyeing promising defender Cho Jin-ho (Novipazar). Analysts say that the team was planning to replace generations with young players playing in Europe after the Asian Cup. Korea will have two consecutive Asian qualifiers against Thailand for the North-Central American World Cup in March.
One of them is believed to be Kastrov. Born to a Korean mother and a German father, Kastrov is a dual citizen who joined the Köln professional team in 2020 after playing for Düsseldorf and the Köln Youth Team. After impressive performance at the German club Nuremberg, he left on loan for the 2022-2023 season, he completely moved to the German club in June last year. He played in 17 matches for the German club in the 2023-2024 season, scoring two goals and one assist. He mostly played as a central midfielder. The main force is a midfielder, but he is known to be a multiplayer who can play both midfielders and side defenders. He has been recognized for his skills in Germany from the age of 16 to 20.
"I was born in Germany, but my mother is a Korean national. She has a strong relationship with Korea," Kastrov said in an interview back in 2022. I've been to Korea several times. Korea is a beautiful country. The people and culture there are amazing. There is not only a German flag but also a Korean flag in my life."
If Kastrov, a mixed-race player born and raised in Germany, had been selected for the Korean national team, it would have caused a huge stir in itself.
However, as manager Klinsmann was replaced shortly after the Asian Cup due to his performance and work attitude, Castrov's selection is likely to have not happened for the time being.
The association started searching for Klinsmann's successor, with Chung Hae-sung, chairman of the Korea Power Reinforcement Committee. The association plans to hold a second meeting on the appointment of the next head coach with 10 members of the Korea Power Reinforcement Committee on Monday.