By Kaveh Mahjoob

Both Korean and Iranian head coaches, Huh Junk Moo and Ali Daei, have something odd in common. Neither one received full endorsements of the fans and media when they were appointed to their jobs. In fact, in both cases, their respective football federations spent months determining who the next head coach would be.

In Moo’s case, the Korean Federation was first interested in bringing a foreign head coach but the price tag was too high. Korean Federation then looked inside and brought back the former head coach of the national teams in 1995 and 1998 – 2000. At first, Moo’s selection was received with mixed feelings. The club he was coaching, Chunnam Dragons, was a middle of table fixture in K-League although Dragons won two FA cups with Moo. In fact, his last year as a club coach his team finished tenth and scored less than a goal per match. Many inside Korea believed that there are better domestic tacticians than Moo but the federation selected him.
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