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Men's nat'l football team hires 2 new coaches in preparation for World Cup

Published: 24 Jul. 2025, 12:36

This composite photo provided by the Korea Football Association on July 24 shows two new coaches for the Korean men's national football team: Pedro Roma, left, and Nuno Matias. [KFA]

The Korean men's national football team hired two new coaches on Thursday, with the next FIFA World Cup less than a year away.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) said Pedro Roma will be the new goalkeeper coach, while Nuno Matias will be the new fitness coach under head coach Hong Myung-bo. Both new additions hail from Portugal.

Roma, 54, has served as the goalkeeper coach for Portugal's junior national teams, first from 2011 to 2019 and then from 2023 to this year, and for the Bahrain men's national team from 2019 to 2023.

While in Korea, Roma will run goalkeeper clinics to help develop young custodians here when the national team is not in training camp, the KFA added.

Matias, 41, has been the strength and conditioning coach for the Portuguese club Benfica since 2021, after serving as head of Benfica youth club's sports science team and conditioning coach for their B team.

The KFA noted that Matias helped Benfica reach the round of 16 at the FIFA Club World Cup held in the United States last month, and his experience working with players there should help Korea when the United States co-hosts the 2026 World Cup with Canada and Mexico.

The two new coaches will join two other Portuguese coaches, Joao Aroso and Tiago Maia, on the backroom staff.

The KFA did not re-sign assistant coach Park Kun-ha and goalkeeper coach Yang Young-min after their contracts expired at the end of the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Football Championship on July 16.

Yonhap