Korean manager would like Premiership role

Guus Hiddink has confirmed he would like to work in the Premier League following his World Cup heroics with South Korea - but revealed he has not had any approach from Leeds.

Hiddink has been linked with the vacant manager’s job at Elland Road following David O’Leary’s shock departure and while the Dutchman is a fan of English club football, he says he has had no contact with the Yorkshire club.

‘‘I have not had any approach from Leeds United,’’ he said. ‘‘The Premier League is very exciting and when I was Dutch manager I watched a lot of games there. It would be nice to work in the Premier League.’’

Hiddink’s 18-month contract with the Korean FA expires tomorrow and while he has not turned down their offer of a new deal, he has admitted he wants to coach players on a daily basis.

A number of clubs, including his former side PSV Eindhoven, approached him before the World Cup and he will now take a couple of weeks to weigh up all his offers.

‘‘Before the World Cup there were some people, among them PSV, who asked me if I was available to talk about my future,’’ he said.

‘‘I said I was available to talk then, but during the World Cup I wanted to focus myself just on the Korean team.

‘‘I’m very pleased that the Korean team want me to stay and that’s recognition of what we’ve achieved here.

‘‘I will think about that and what will happen we will see in the next few weeks.

‘‘But without having anything confirmed or fixed, what I would like very much, and it’s no secret, is what I’ve been doing for the last half a year and that’s working on a daily basis with the players.

‘‘That’s given me a lot of satisfaction and I would like to continue that way.’’

Hiddink’s reign as South Korea coach ended in defeat, but none of the Koreans among the 63,000-strong crowd in the Daegu World Cup stadium seemed to mind too much.

The third-place play-off is usually played at little more than testimonial pace, but with Korea and Turkey it was totally different.

Hakan Sukur set the tone for this highly-competitive tussle when he scored after just 10.8 seconds to register the fastest goal in World Cup finals history.

Ilhan Mansiz robbed skipper Hong Myung-bo on the edge of his area and then squared the ball to Sukur to score his first goal of the tournament.

Korea levelled in the ninth minute from a terrific free-kick from Lee Eul-yong when he whipped the ball over the Turkish wall from 25 yards, his shot brushing the post on its way into the top corner.

Turkey hit back within three minutes when Mansiz exchanged passes with Sukur before tucking the ball into the far corner.

On 32 minutes it was 3-1 when Sukur and Mansiz combined for the Besiktas striker to lift the ball home over Lee Woon-jae to register his third World Cup goal in his last three games.

The Koreans tried desperately to claw their way back into the game and in the third minute of stoppage-time their efforts were partially rewarded when Song Chong-gug scored with a deflected shot from outside the area.

Turkish coach Senol Gunes was delighted to finish third in the World Cup and achieve a couple more firsts.

‘‘I’m very happy that we have achieved third place in the World Cup,’’ he said.

‘‘Turkey are always making firsts. We’ve scored the fastest goal of the World Cup finals and this is the first time the South Korean team have conceded three goals in the tournament.

‘‘We came here proud and we go home proud. We have given the Turkish people great joy and happiness over these last few weeks.

‘‘I believe it is going to be like a meeting between two lovers when we go home to Turkey to be greeted by our fans.’’