Prior to his arrival, very few Malaysians knew the existence of Kim Pan-gon.
A handful like Datuk K. Rajagopal, Datuk Yunus Alif, Aminuddin Hussein, Azuan Zain and the late B. Sathianathan, knew Pan-gon as one of their coaching course mates in the AFC Professional Diploma under facilitator Howard Wilkinson in 2003.
Today, Pan-gon has done enough to earn the respect of even his fiercest critics.
After spending 21 months in Malaysia, Pan-gon and his trusted panel of coaches have managed to whip a Malaysian side low in confidence into a team that have become hard to beat.
Virtually every football fan worth his salt knows Pan-gon by name.
He has succeeded in making the Malaysian team play better at what they do best, by using speed on the flanks, as illustrated in the come-from-behind victory over Kyrgyzstan, a team ranked 40 rungs above Malaysia in the FIFA rankings, in Harimau Malaya’s opening group tie in the World Cup 2026-Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers.
As a result of his painstaking work in raising the standard of the team, Pan-gon has been rewarded with an extension of his contract.
Having been on the other side of the fence, Pan-gon knew what FA of Malaysia (FAM) president, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin, wanted. After all Pan-gon was chairman of the national team committee tasked to hire and fire coaches for the South Korean FA (KFA).
Pan-gon swapped his coaching tracksuit at Hong Kong with a pair of blazers in December 2017, when he was appointed as the KFA vice-president.
He was also given the cushy job as head of the national team committee tasked to plan a long-term project to reshape the future of South Korean football.
Armed with the implicit trust of KFA president, Chung Mong-gyu, a close ally of Hamidin, Pan-gon placed the emphasis on sports science, weight training, recovery, treatment and data analysis.
Through his proactive approach, he hired Paulo Bento as the Korean team boss. Basically, he was Bento’s boss.
It was Pan-gon who unveiled Bento as the Korean coach at the KFA House in Seoul in August 2018.
He was quoted as saying: “Bento pursues high-pressing game that doesn’t allow the opponents to build up their attacking process, and tries to prevent their counterattacks. He was also strong in knockout stage competitions. He is professional, charismatic and has passion and confidence.”
Probably a reflection of his own philosophy.
But Pan-gon missed the smell of fresh-cut grass before training, the day-to-day stress in managing a team and the roar of the crowd.
When Hamidin sought Mong-gyu’s help to recommend a Korean coach to rejuvenate the Malaysian team that failed dismally in the 2021 AFF Cup, the timing was just right.
Pan-gon relinquished the authority as the KFA national team supremo, a position now occupied by Michael Muller who hired Juergen Klinsmann to take charge of the Taeguk Warriors.Hamidin was smitten by the K-Factor, having seen Park Hang-seo and Shin Tae-yong, with Vietnam and Indonesia respectively, getting favourable results at international level.
More importantly, they were less expensive to hire than their European counterparts.
A passionate speaker in the dressing room, Pan-gon cultivated a fresh approach as he began to create a high-performance environment for the national team.
With Pau Marti, E. Elavarasan, performance analyst Lim Jae-hun, assistant coach Park Bo-bae, and goalkeeper coach Cho Jun-ho by his side to help him scour the country to evaluate players they think could fit into his tactical plans, their honest work has yielded 17 victories in 25 matches so far.
Badminton legend, Park Joo-bong and archery coach, Lee Jae-hyung, created an indelible mark on Malaysian sports when they became coaches here.
With Pan-gon keeping the Malaysian dream of featuring in the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada in 2026 alive, he may turn out to be the most famous Korean ever to set foot in Malaysia!
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