hankyoreh

Korean coach Park Hang-seo and his U-23 Vietnamese soccer team were honored after they returned to Vietnam following their successful performance at the Asian Football Confederation U23 Championships in China. Vietnam became the first southeast Asian team to reach the final of the tournament, and generated massive excitement within the country. Park, who was hailed as the “Vietnamese Hiddink” (a reference to Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who led the South Korean national team at the 2002 World Cup and is an honorary Korean citizen), and his team received medals from Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (second from right) at the national government office in Hanoi on Jan. 27. (taken from the Vietnamese government homepage)