Former national football team manager Guus Hiddink on Tuesday met with a group of blind children during a visit to his old stomping ground. They gripped the coach’s hands tightly as he told them how nice it was to meet them. The former manager and a pizza franchise provided pizza for the children at the meeting.
Hiddink, now coaching the Australian team, is in Korea with his girlfriend Elizabeth and met 20 students with the Chung-ju Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center for the Blind at a hotel in Seoul on Wednesday. He promised to donate W100 million (US$100,000) to help build an artificial turf stadium next to the center. It is the first undertaking of the Guus Hiddink Foundation the former coach established with money he earned during his tenure in Korea. “I had such an amazing experience and a chance to feel the country’s abundant beauty during the Korea-Japan World Cup 2002, and I realized that there are still those in the country who need our help,” Hiddink said. He aims to build more football pitches for people with disabilities.
The rehabilitation center has its own football team with players aged between eight and 45. “The team was set up in March last year, but we haven’t had a suitable place to play football, so we mainly used parks,” said Jang Tae-soon (45), the team captain. “I am so happy we’ll get a nice Astroturf field. I hope I can do my best in the national football championship for the blind” to be held in Pohang on June 7 and 8.
A student gestures after receiving an autograph on a football from former Korean national football team coach Guus Hiddink at a pizza party for students with the Chung-ju Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center for the Blind on Wednesday afternoon, under the sponsorship of the Guus Hiddink Foundation and Papa John’s Pizza franchise.
Hiddink at a press conference later expressed hope that the Korean national football squad makes a strong impression at the World Cup as a disciplined and aggressive team. “I’d like to ask the Korean people to enjoy the game itself and take pride in their national squad,” he added. Asked how he would approach his own team’s first match with Japan in Group F as “an honorary citizen of South Korea,” he answered, “I come to Korea often because people here have such a warm and welcoming attitude.” He said while the Japanese team is highly experienced, his team would do its best from a determination to beat the Japanese.
(englishnews@chosun.com )