North Korean leaders are convinced the country can produce next Lionel Messi, but the national team’s coach isn’t. (Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)
North Korea isn’t exactly a soccer super power, but that hasn’t stopped the country’s sports leaders from boasting that one day it will be.
“Our goal is to train our students to become a great national team member, and to make them super-talented players who can surpass Lionel Messi,” youth coach Ri Yu-Il told Agence France-Presse in an interview posted Tuesday.
With his country currently ranked 126th in the world out of 209 teams, according to FIFA’s international soccer rankings, Ri Yu-Il recognizes the climb up the world football rankings will be incremental.
“For now, we are aiming to dominate Asia,” he said, “and in the near future, I hope we can dominate the world.”
Ri Yu-Il is the son of the goalkeeper from North Korea’s famous 1966 World Cup team, which managed to oust Italy from the group stage to make it to the tournament’s quarterfinals. That famous game, which became the subject of the 2002 documentary “The Game of Their Lives,” continues to inspire North Korea’s future talent, according to AFP.
[The Olympics are tough for all athletes. For North Koreans, they’re worse.]
Not everybody in the country has high hopes for the team, however. Jorn Andersen, the first foreign-born coach to manage North Korea’s national team, said he doubts the country has the ability to produce talent on the caliber of Messi, let alone a player who could surpass him.
“I don’t think [North Korea] can make a Lionel Messi,” the 53-year-old Norwegian said (via ESPN FC). “When they are always playing inside [North Korea], it’s difficult to create better players.”
Andersen added that he thinks North Korea can “make good players for Asia,” but to really produce great world talents, he said the country will have to open its borders to allow its players to join more diverse leagues around the world.
Bringing in Andersen, a former Norwegian national team member who spent much of the past two decades coaching in Europe, might be a good first step in bringing more varied skills to the team, but his efforts won’t help North Korea prepare for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. North Korea has already been mathematically eliminated from qualifying.
[By the way, what is North Korea up to at the Olympics?]
The last time North Korea qualified for the World Cup was in 2010, but the team lost all three of its group stage games to put it at the bottom of Group G.
Upon returning home, the team was reportedly subjected to a six-hour public excoriation, during which the former coach and individual members were accused of “betraying” their country with their poor showing.
