KUALA LUMPUR: As Malaysia search the world for a coach, South Korean Kim Sang Ryul is in town with China's Liaoning men's and women's teams for the Malaysia Hockey League.
But Sang Ryul, regarded as one of world's top coaches, is not available as he has a three-year contract with Liaoning as their consultant until December next year.
But like Malaysian hockey which is in the doldrums, Sang Ryul is also sad with the state of Korean hockey.
Sang Ryul, who guided South Korea to the men's team silver in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, lamented that his country had failed to qualify for the Olympics in the last three editions.
The 69-year-old said the Korean team have been on the slide in the last few years.
"Korea is depending too much on the same set of veterans like captain Lee Nam Yong and Jang Jong Hyun (both are 40 years old) because there are no back-up players.
"Hockey is not a popular sport in Korea and the budget is limited. We cannot get sponsors.
"The Korean national league has only four men's teams and six women's teams. How to develop hockey with just a small number of players?
Sang Ryul said when he took over the Korean team in 1989, there was a big gap between them and the top hockey-playing nations.
"We learned every aspect of the game to know why the Europeans are so good at hockey. We focused on things like techniques, skills, fitness, mental strength and counterattacks."
On India being the only Asian country to have qualified for the Paris Olympics, Sang Ryul said: "India has very strong financial support for hockey. They are ranked third in the world because they have a huge grassroots development programme in every part of India."
On the struggling Malaysia team, Sang Ryul said they need to have more skilful players, fitter players and mentally stronger players.
"The players also must be able to switch the game fast, and to do that you need intelligent players.
"Malaysia have the advantage as they have players from multi-races like Malays, Chinese and Indians. A combination from the various races can produce talented, good thinking and quality players."
Asked whether he is interested to be Malaysia's head coach, Sang Ryul said: "I'm more interested to be a high performance director."
Sang Ryul guided China's men's team to the silver at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and China's women's team to fifth placing in the 2012 London Olympics.
The Korean got his coaching certificate from India's National Institute of Sports in Patiala in 1985 after studying under Olympic champion Balkrishan Singh.