Cha Kyung-bok was a South Korean football manager whose 37-year career, lasting from 1967 to 2004, made him one of his country"s best-known and most-respected members of the sport world.
Education
A native of the city of Jeongeup in Jeollabuk-do province, Cha Kyung-bok graduated from Joongdong High School and took a Bachelor"s degree from Kyunghee University, where, during his student days, he played on the national team His primary sport, before he attended middle school, was volleyball, but subsequent to participating in and winning a football tournament in the intramural athletic meeting of his school, he started a new career as a football player, during which he played for the Industrial Bank of of Korea Football Club for five years and then returned to Kyunghee University in 1967 as a coach.
Career
During his long career, Cha acted as a referee and, in his position as referee assistant, was in charge of the final match in Los Angeles" 1984 Summer Olympics. He also worked for of Korea Football Association as a President of Technical Committee, Disciplinary Committee. As part of his career as an executive at the Industrial Bank of of Korea Football Club, University of Incheon, and Kyunghee University, he became a manager of Jeonbuk Dinos in 1994.
His good fortune, however, was not in evidence during his last year with Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma.
He resigned from the club shortly thereafter and died less than two years later of Lou Gehrig"s disease, ten weeks before his 70th birthday, having spent the last five months in the hospital.