A job like no other: Inside North Korea’s bid to recruit a German soccer coach



Features A job like no other: Inside North Korea’s bid to recruit a German soccer coach Gert Engels visited the DPRK to consider a job coaching the country’s best team, but authorities made it hard to leave Joe Smith February 28, 2024 SHARE COPY LINK FACEBOOK X LINKEDIN MASTODON An illustration of a man gazing at a soccer pitch \| Image: NK News Last-minute venue changes, prompted by concerns over travel to North Korea, have complicated Olympic qualifying matches this week between the DPRK and Japan’s women’s soccer teams, underlining the challenges of engaging Pyongyang even in relatively non-sensitive areas like sports. This is something that German soccer coach Gert Engels knows all too well from experience. Engels had been coaching in Japan for more than 20 years when North Korea sports officials approached him about taking a job training the country’s elite “April 25” men’s soccer team in 2016. “Some of my friends … and especially my mother, they asked, ‘How can © Korea Risk Group. All rights reserved. No part of this content may be reproduced, distributed, or used for commercial purposes without prior written permission from Korea Risk Group. Get the Daily Update & Podcast Updates Start your day with the North Korea stories that matter most – as selected by Trending

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A job like no other: Inside North Korea’s bid to recruit a German soccer coach

Gert Engels visited the DPRK to consider a job coaching the country’s best team, but authorities made it hard to leave

Joe Smith February 28, 2024

A job like no other: Inside North Korea’s bid to recruit a German soccer coach

An illustration of a man gazing at a soccer pitch | Image: NK News

Last-minute venue changes, prompted by concerns over travel to North Korea, have complicated Olympic qualifying matches this week between the DPRK and Japan’s women’s soccer teams, underlining the challenges of engaging Pyongyang even in relatively non-sensitive areas like sports.

This is something that German soccer coach Gert Engels knows all too well from experience.

Engels had been coaching in Japan for more than 20 years when North Korea sports officials approached him about taking a job training the country’s elite “April 25” men’s soccer team in 2016.

“Some of my friends … and especially my mother, they asked, ‘How can

A job like no other: Inside North Korea’s bid to recruit a German soccer coach

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