On June 22, 2002, on a stiflingly hot afternoon, a whole nation held its breath as a shaggy-haired footballer nonchalantly put the ball down on the penalty spot. In front of him stood 21-year-old Ilker Cassilas – the hero of Spain’s shoot-out win over the Republic of Ireland in the previous round. The player takes six lazy paces back from the ball, never looking once at the goalkeeper. He jogs up to the ball and confidently places it high into Cassilas’s top left hand corner leaving him no chance – that man was Hong Myung-Bo.
Rewind eight years to the summer of 1996 and Bo was the talk of European transfer business. Louis Van Gaal (then at Ajax) had monitored the progress of the then 27-year-old Bo and he wasn’t alone in his admiration. Arrigo Sacchi at Milan and Marcello Lippi at Juventus were also pursuing the classy Korean sweeper – certain that he had the talent to become Asia’s first great footballing star.
But it wasn’t to be as in a time when football was a much less about money, Bo was content playing in Asia where his career would see him have two spells with Pohang Steelers either side of stints with Bellmare Hiratsuka and Kashiwa Reysol in Japan. Bo did eventually leave Asia for pastures new, but it was to the MLS with LA Galaxy for one last hurrah.
His reading of the game together with his calmness in possession and incredible passing ability made him an unsurprising target for Europe’s giants and it is hard to imagine that had he been around today he would have been able to evade the clutches of Europe’s elite clubs.
Bo would finally get the recognition he deserved at his fourth World Cup. He was already 33 when he captained his country on home soil to fourth place - their greatest ever finish at the tournament. His pride was immeasurable given the three previous tournaments (1998, 1994 & 1990) he played in without winning a single game. It is testament to his character that his greatest memory of that tournament is not his winning penalty against Spain, but South Korea winning their first match at a World Cup. He went on to be named in the team of the tournament and was awarded the ‘bronze ball’.
“For me the most memorable thing was our first match against Poland. We played them in my home town and we won for the first time at a World Cup – that was special,” said Bo, who was capped 136 times.
Gus Hiddink’s side were extremely fit and their pressing game and pace in all areas meant they could literally overrun the opposition as Italy discovered to their cost. But the fulcrum of the system was undoubtedly Bo and he brought an uncanny sense of poise to a team that flew round the pitch like wasps. He finally looked like the world-class player many top coaches knew he was. He set up attacks and was always on hand to snuff out danger when needed and every so often would spray a raking cross-field ball to spark another forward raid.
The Eternal Libero as he would come to be known was a proper footballer and Gus Hiddink knew it. So much so that the end of the World Cup in 2002 was not the end for Bo and Hiddink.
In August 2012, Hiddink persuaded Bo to join him as his assistant at the newly found millionaires of football – Anzi Makhachkala in Russia. Sadly for Hiddink and Bo, they found out (like all those who tried) that coaching a team that lives and trains in Moscow but then travels over 1,600 kilometres to a politically unstable region to play matches cannot be done no matter how much money you throw at it.
Bo went on to manage his nation in 2013, but resigned following the 2014 World Cup where his side only managed a single point in the group stage. It was always going to be difficult to replicate South Korea’s achievements in the heady days of 2002 but the nation will be hoping their next talisman is just round the corner. If he’s half as good as good as Hong Myung-Bo they may be in luck.
