SOUTH KOREA appointed Shin Tae-yong as head coach Tuesday and charged the former AFC Champions League winner with taking the national team to the 2018 World Cup finals.

The 46-year-old Shin replaces Uli Stielike, who was fired in June after a third defeat in five qualifiers.

“Shin previously worked as assistant coach for the national team and that’s why he knows the players more than anyone else,” said Kim Ho-gon, the newly appointed technical director of the Korea Football Association.

As well as his experience as No. 2 to Stielike, Shin led the Under-23 South Korea team to the last eight of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the Under-20s to the second round of the 2017 World Cup, played on home soil.(SD-Agencies)