SEOUL– Former midfielder Hwang In-sun has become the first female head coach for a South Korean national football team.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced Tuesday Hwang, 45, will be the head coach for the women’s under-20 national team.
Hwang is the first woman to lead any South Korean national football team at any age group. She had been an assistant coach on the senior women’s national team under Colin Bell since 2019.
Hwang will be in charge for South Korea at next year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.
“I am grateful for this opportunity. I’ve never thought I’d get this chance,” Hwang said. “I will do my best to help develop women’s football even further. I will apply lessons I’ve learned from Coach Bell and help raise future members of the senior national team. I hope to become the head coach for the senior team someday.”
Kim Pan-gon, head of the KFA’s national team competitiveness enhancement committee, said Hwang has more than proven her coaching acumen working with national teams in different age groups.
“She has a wealth of international experience and has an intimate knowledge of players across all levels,” Kim said. “She likes to play an aggressive brand of football with strong pressure and her approach fits with our philosophy.
“Hwang’s appointment will be the starting point for us to actively look for female coaches for national teams at different age groups,” Kim added. “The KFA will continue to develop more female coaches.”
Hwang collected 39 caps as a player. The highlight of her playing career came in June 2003, when she scored the winning goal against Japan in the third place match at the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Asian Cup. With that victory, South Korea qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time.
Hwang began her coaching career in 2007 on a semi-pro club, and joined the national team staff for the 2010 Women’s U-20 World Cup, where South Korea finished third.
She was a caretaker boss for the senior women’s team briefly in 2019.
Source: Yonhap News Agency