Cha Kyung-bok
 |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 차경복 |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Cha Gyeong-Bok |
| McCune–Reischauer | Ch'a Kyŏngbok |
Cha Kyung-Bok (10 January 1937—31 October 2006) was a South Korean football manager whose 37-year career, lasting from 1967 to 2004, made him one of his country's best-known and most-respected members of the sport world.
Early years
A native of the city of Jeongeup in Jeollabuk-do province, Cha Kyung Bok graduated from Joongdong High School and took a Bachelor's degree from Kyunghee University, where, during his student days, he played on the national team. His primary sport, before he attended middle school, was volleyball, but subsequent to participating in and winning a football tornament in the intramural athletic meeting of his school, he started a new career as a football player, during which he played for the Industrial Bank of Korea Football Club for five years and then returned to Kyunghee University in 1967 as a coach.
Career highlights
During his long career, Cha acted as a referee and, in his position as referee assistant, was in charge of the final match in Los Angeles' 1984 Summer Olympics. He also worked for Korea Football Association as a President of Technical Committee, Disciplinary Committee.
As part of his career as an executive at the Industrial Bank of Korea FC, University of Incheon, and Kyunghee University, he became a manager of Jeonbuk Dinos in 1994. He was awarded Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Coach of the Year in 2003 and, during 1998–2004, while coaching Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, enabled the team to win K-League three times in a row and qualify to AFC Champions League final in 2004, which gained him great affection from almost every fan of Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma.
His good fortune, however, was not in evidence during his last year with Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. Although he won the AFC Champions League final 1st leg beating Al-Ittihad (Jeddah) by a score of 3-1 in Jeddah, the opposing team ultimately inflicted a 5-0 rout. He resigned from the club shortly thereafter and died less than two years later of Lou Gehrig's disease, ten weeks before his 70th birthday, having spent the last five months in the hospital.
Honors
- K-League Champions: 2001, 2002, 2003 (three times)
- Korean FA Cup Champions: 1999 (once)
- Korean FA Cup Runner-up: 2000 (once)
- Korean Super Cup Champions: 2002 (once)
- Korean Super Cup Runner-up: 2000, 2004 (twice)
- Korean League Cup Champions: 2002, 2004 (twice)
- Korean League Cup Runner-up: 2002 (once)
- AFC Champions League Runner-up: 2004 (once)
- A3 Champions Cup Champions: 2004 (once)