Less than 10 days after stepping down as head coach of professional soccer’s K League 1 Incheon United, Cho Sung-hwan has taken the helm of K-League 2 Busan IPark.

The Busan club announced on Thursday that it has appointed Cho as its 25th head coach.

The announcement comes nine days after Cho made his last match as Incheon’s head coach in the 21st round of the K League 1 against Gimcheon Sangmu on May 5.

Busan finished second in the K League 2 regular season last season, one point behind Gimcheon Sangmu, and missed out on promotion after failing to get past K League 1 Suwon FC in the promotion playoffs.

This season, they are in ninth place with just six wins, five draws and eight losses (23 points) in 19 matches.

Head coach Park Jin-seob resigned after a home match against Bucheon FC on March 6, taking responsibility for the team’s poor performance, and Busan, which has been searching for a successor, selected Cho, who was most recently in charge of Incheon.

Cho, a defender who made 230 appearances in the K League as a player, has worked as a coach for Jeonbuk Hyundai after retiring from football and made his debut as a professional manager with Jeju United in the 2015 season.

He led Jeju to a K League 1 runner-up finish in 2017 and took charge of Incheon in August 2020 after resigning midway through the 2019 season.

Under Cho, Incheon dramatically avoided relegation in the 2020 season and finished fourth in the K League 1 in 2022, qualifying for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League (ACL) for the first time in its history.

Last year, the club finished fifth in K League 1 and reached Final A, but after failing to break out of the mid-table this season, Cho stepped down, saying it was time for a change in the team.

On the 5th against Gimcheon, which was his last game in Incheon, the departing coach was given a warm farewell by the players and fans, a rare scene.

“With the appointment of Cho Sung-hwan, a veteran coach with a wide range of experience, the Busan club is determined to overcome the team’s difficult situation and continue to move forward toward the goal of promotion,” the club said.

Cho said, “I am honored to be appointed as the head coach of Busan, a prestigious club. “I came with the mindset of starting a new challenge rather than stability,” he said, “and I will do my best to promote Busan as soon as possible and reward the fans with good results.

Cho will make his Busan debut on the 20th against Jeonnam Dragons in the 23rd round of the K League 2. 메이저사이트