Shanghai Star. 2002-08-15

The new head coach of PSV Eindhoven Guus Hiddink (C) signs autographs after the club's first training session August 1. Hiddink guided South Korea to the semi-finals during the World Cup soccer finals in South Korea and Japan in June.

And while Hiddink is back now in his homeland and heading up PSV Eindhoven - the club where he sprang to prominence as a top international coach - the Koreans aren't giving up on him

IN awe, the South Korean soccer fans visiting this sleepy Dutch hamlet take off their shoes before stepping reverently upon the grass.

They have come halfway around the globe for this moment, to see the pitch where their hero Guus Hiddink learned the skills he used to lead South Korea's 2002 World Cup team to the best ever showing by an Asian country in the tournament's 72-year history.

Hiddink conducts the PSV Eindhoven first training session August 1.

The success of the Red Devils, who reached the semi-finals before losing to Turkey, made Dutchman Hiddink, 55, a South Korean cult figure and the village of Varsseveld in the east of the Netherlands where he grew up a mecca for fans.

They started visiting during the World Cup, first in groups of three or four, asking in broken English for directions to Hiddink's former home, and then by the busload on guided tours, much to the surprise of this village's 6,000 inhabitants.

"I had to check my passport to make sure I was still in the Netherlands," chuckles one resident as members of a Korean family take turns nearby posing with a life-size portrait of Hiddink.

"At first I thought it was a little strange, but then I thought what is wrong with this? Hiddink has done very well by South Korea and these people really get a thrill out of walking through the same streets as their hero did as a kid.

"We're pretty proud of him and the Koreans too. They were who we rooted for here because our own Dutch team didn't make the World Cup."

Evident pride

South Korea's pride in Hiddink is evident in the way tourists eagerly photograph everything that bears his name, from Hiddinkdijk (Hiddink dike) to the Hiddinklaan (Hiddink Avenue).

Most are surprised to discover they are not named after their hero - Hiddink is a common family name in this part of the country - and that no monument has been erected here in his honour.

Even the driver of a horse-drawn cart who regularly takes visitors on a tour of the village and Hiddink-related sites shares their hero's last name.

These facts, though, do not dampen visitors' spirits.

Eagerly they peer through windows, take photographs and wave enthusiastically at the residents of a stately house where Hiddink and his family lived when he was a child.

Notes in carefully scripted English in a visitors book for Hiddink in a restaurant in the centre of the village also attest to their admiration.

"Thank you Guus. You are our hero," says one. And another: "I love you Guus. Come back soon and be our coach again."

That enthusiasm is echoed by a number of Varsseveld residents.

"Holland is my heart and soul, but watching Korea play soccer is like watching Holland at its best," Xander Zeilinga wrote in a letter published in the Korean Herald.

"That you Korea for taking away the pain and frustration that Holland (wasn't) in the World Cup."

Hero worship

Diehard soccer fans will probably find nothing unusual in South Korea's reverence for Hiddink.

Before his 18-month tenure as head coach of the Red Devils, no Asian team had ever reached the World Cup semi-finals and South Korea had not won a single game in their five previous appearances at the finals.

South Koreans' outpouring of joy during the World Cup - which the country jointly hosted with Japan - and the unprecedented street parties that accompanied home team matches fascinated sociologists and intrigued vote-hungry South Korean politicians who face a presidential election in December. With the Koreans showing so much enthusiasm for its native son, Varsseveld is eagerly rolling out the welcome mat for Asian visitors, who number as many as a 100 or more each day.

South Korean flags grace most shop windows and many homes throughout the village; at least one local restaurant has added Korean dishes to its menu; and locals greet tourists with a wave, a broad grin, and the Red Devils' team cheer.

But Varsseveld's transformation into a point of call for South Korean travellers - alongside world capitals including Rome, Paris, and Vienna - has not been without its problems.

A number of the first of the soccer pilgrims to Hiddink's boyhood home found themselves stranded with no place to stay because they didn't know that the trains back to the Dutch capital stop running early.

After several occasions when villagers had to take in the odd tourist overnight, Varsseveld residents hurriedly set up bed and breakfasts, drafted an interpreter and hired a consultant to help them inform potential tourists about their town.

And while Hiddink is back now in his homeland and heading up PSV Eindhoven - the club where he sprang to prominence as a top international coach - the Koreans aren't giving up on him.

A report in the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo this week said he could be tapped to lead the country's soccer team in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens and again in the 2006 World Cup.

"I hope he comes back to us. I want him to be my coach some day," one young soccer enthusiast said through an interpreter during a visit to Varsseveld.

"But if he doesn't I can always come here and play for him."

(Agencies via Xinhua)