Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Nanjing: DPR Korea’s women’s football has a proud history of success. Three-time Asian champions at senior level, and four-time world champions at either U-17 or U-20 level, they have consistently produced highly competitive teams at all levels.
Their squad at this year’s AFC U-19 Women’s Championship is no different, roaring to the final with four successive wins and zero goals conceded, but there is one feature of the class of 2017 that is different to those that have preceded them.
For the first time at the tournament, DPR Korea have a foreign coach, with Germany’s Thomas Gerstner at the helm.
The former Bundesliga defender, whose 15-year career included spells at VfL Wolfsburg and Arminia Bielefeld, relocated to Pyongyang in May to take charge of a team which featured several of the players who won the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in Jordan last year.
He revealed that it was his friendship with DPR Korea men’s national team coach Jorn Andersen, who spent the bulk of his playing career in Germany, which precipitated his move.
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